Improving occupational safety and health (OSH) qualifications frameworks

This project aims at conducting research, and developing and implementing a tool to assess and enhance OSH qualifications frameworks at national level.

In the last 50 years, there has been a significant increase in the number of OSH professionals who are playing important roles to ensure that workplaces are safe and healthy. OSH professions encompass many disciplines and job types and professionals are employed in a number of ways, including in companies, within an internal or external OSH Service or as independent professionals providing OSH consultancy services.

Countries are increasingly choosing to regulate entry to OSH professions by defining education and training requirements and requiring for continuous professional development, certification schemes for OSH professionals, accreditation schemes for training providers and registration of OSH professionals. The roles, functions, tasks, competencies and education of the various types of OSH professionals and their regulatory context vary significantly across countries.

Knowledge on trends and good practices to ensure that OSH professionals have the qualifications to meet the needs of countries and enterprises is limited. Capacities and needs vary across and within countries and the experience from developed countries might not be fully transferable to developing economies, including in South and South East Asia.

This project aims at conducting research, and developing and implementing a tool to assess and enhance OSH qualifications frameworks at national level. To this end, the project is conducting research to identify trends and good practices in OSH qualifications frameworks and is developing a methodology to assess national frameworks and identify gaps and recommendations for improvements. In turn, this will contribute to the strengthening of national OSH systems and workplace OSH management.

The project is funded by the Government of Korea and is implemented under the framework of the ILO Flagship Programme on OSH Safety + Health for All . The programme seeks to foster the creation of a global culture of prevention, with the objective of achieving real reductions in the incidence of work-related death, injury and disease. Finally, the project contributes directly to realizing Goal 8 “Decent Work and Economic Growth” of the SDGs.