More Than 7,000 Employees Receive Basic Occupational Safety and Health (OSHJ) Training at Salama Preventive Training Institute in Emirate of Sharjah

More Than 7,000 Employees Receive Basic Occupational Safety and Health (OSHJ) Training at Salama Preventive Training Institute in Emirate of Sharjah

The joint project between The Sharjah Prevention and Safety Authority and Saned Integrated Facilities Management Company

Stemming from its objectives in promoting public health and safety awareness in the Emirate of Sharjah through training on occupational safety practices in work environments, Salama Preventive Training Institute, a joint project between The Sharjah Prevention and Safety Authority, and Saned Integrated Facilities Management Company, owned by Sharjah Asset Management, investment arm of the Government of Sharjah, trained, since its inauguration in 2019, 7,557 trainees and 8,058 have been registered from various companies of both government and private agencies in the Emirate of Sharjah.  This includes all categories of companies that require a level of health and safety to manage safety risks at work.

Salama Institute aims to promote the highest standards of health and safety in the workplace, ensuring well-being in the Emirate of Sharjah by emphasising the importance of adopting safety measures in the workplace, defining health and safety responsibilities between the employer and employee, and highlighting risks associated with dangerous work tools. The Institute teaches best safety practices, and educates employees on the correct prevention and proper reporting of accidents, in addition to providing public awareness about fire safety and emergency response plans, and reducing incidences of malpractice that lead to work-related injuries.

His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Prevention and Safety Authority, stressed the need for workers to join the Salama Preventive Training Institute, explaining that the Authority is working under strategic plans to spread preventive awareness among all individuals in society.  This will achieve the vision of the Authority to form a safer society by integrating training programs in occupational health and safety, which will improve performance in managing daily work, build capacities related to occupational health and safety, and provide safe work environments, ensuring a culture of behavioral safety.

He noted the efforts made in previous years by the Institute to educate workers in various sectors in the Emirate resulted in rapid positive transformations in occupational safety and health, and contributed to reducing accidents in the workplace.

Engineer Sultan Musabih Al Ketbi, CEO of Saned Integrated Facilities Management Company, owned by Sharjah Asset Management Company, said: “The importance of the Salama Institute lies in the need to create an educated and informed workforce, capable of occupying vital jobs in many sectors and dealing with various emergency and danger situations.  Through the development of a unified methodology for managing risks that affect occupational safety and health, Salama Preventive Training Institute was approved by The Sharjah Prevention and Safety Authority in partnership with Saned, in order to reduce the occurrence of risks and accidents in the work environment. The Institute provides distinguished training programs for employees in the Emirate of Sharjah that focus on the importance of health and safety in the workplace.”

Al Ketbi added: “This initiative is the first of its kind in the Middle East and is implemented in workforces across the city. Through Salama Institute, we aim to create a workplace free from any harm or risks in the Emirate of Sharjah, by presenting and instilling a culture of worker safety, not only in the workplace but in their daily lives as well. We accomplish this by providing training courses in an easy-to-understand manner, as well as by encouraging practical application of safety theories, to ensure it is easy for trainees to understand them, enabling them to realise and implement correct ways to deal with different risks. This is especially important as we in the UAE deal with people from different backgrounds and cultures.”