Ministry of Labour inspectors start specialised OSH training

Better Work Jordan/ILO conducts NEBOSH course in partnership with ministry

Press release | 07 September 2022

The Better Work Jordan programme/the International Labour Organization (ILO), in partnership with the Ministry of Labour (MoL), is training 40 MoL inspectors on risk assessment and management and occupational safety and health (OSH).

The training is being conducted under the UK-based National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH), which offers qualifications and courses in the field.

NEBOSH certificate will be awarded to participants who successfully complete the training and pass related international exams, Minister of Labour, Nayef Steitieh has said at the training course launch.

“Absence of OSH standards prevents families from sending their sons and daughters to occupational training centres or factories,” Steitieh added. “The MoL is training its staff to deal OSH issues, and organising OSH awareness campaigns, in a bid to ensure that OSH specialists are hired by enterprises with more than 20 employees.”

These efforts, the minister explained, “are part of Jordan’s economic modernisation plans, which seek to create more than a million jobs in the next 10 years”. “The ministry has devised a strategy with timeframes to achieve that goal, and the training course is a practical initiative to help create jobs.”

Nada Qaddoura, Coordinator of the Labour Inspection project of Better Work Jordan, said the specialised NEBOSH training on risk assessment and management and OSH “is an important step towards developing capacity of inspectors, under the ongoing ILO-MoL partnership”. “The ILO is keen on collaborating with the ministry on advancing OSH skills of MoL inspectors.”

Head of the OSH Directorate of the MoL, Najah Abu Tafish, described the training course as “invaluable”, stressing the need for “professionally equipping MoL inspectors to effectively assess and address workplace risks”.

One of the trainees said: “Ensuring the implementation of OSH standards by enterprises helps create a safe work environment for all workers, and boost productivity.”