February is Career and Technical Education Month ® , an annual campaign organized by the Association for Career and Technical Education ® (ACTE) to raise public awareness and celebrate the value of CTE.   What is CTE? ​Career and Technical Education (CTE) combines classroom learning with hands-on experience. The goal of CTE is to provide students with a well-rounded toolkit of the academic, technical, and employability skills necessary to succeed in the workforce across a wide range of industries and occupations. Why does CTE matter? According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 92% of high school students are engaged in CTE. That number shows that a huge majority of ...

On November 11, many Americans have a day off work and school for Veterans Day. CareerSafe wants to help spread the word on why it's important not to think of Veterans Day as "just another day off". What's in a name? On the 11 th hour of the 11 th day of the 11 th month of 1918, an armistice—or temporary cessation of hostilities—was declared between Allied forces and Germany in World War I. One year later, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the commemoration of Armistice Day. Armistice Day became a legal federal holiday "dedicated to the cause of world peace" in the United States in 1938. On June 1, 1954, President Eisenhower signed HR7786, changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day, and...

Each year, the National FFA Convention & Expo provides opportunities for students to learn more about who they want to become and how they can prepare themselves for the future. The focus of the event is growing the next generation of leaders in the agriculture industry.  This year, the   94 th National FFA Convention & Expo   returned in-person in Indianapolis, Indiana on October 27-30, 2021. The event had over 56,000 attendees , and CareerSafe was there to share the message of safety with them all! At the CareerSafe booth, students shared agriculture facts from their states, what they loved about FFA, and what they knew about agriculture safety. Additionally, CareerS...

Times of struggle and challenge are often some of the greatest periods of growth, and the pandemic has certainly created plenty of challenges. However, as we have risen to meet those challenges, COVID-19 has helped shine a light on crucial changes that needed to be made in the world of health and safety. Though the lessons COVID-19 has taught us have been plentiful, a recent Safety+Health magazine article highlights two health and safety truths in particular: 1) none of us are immune to hazards, and 2) the quality of life is determined by health, more than anything. People have a common tendency to believe that the bad thing (in this case, a disease) "won't happen to me", and the pandemic ha...

This year marks the 25 th anniversary of National Safety Month (NSM) , an annual observance begun by the National Safety Council (NSC) with the goal of increasing public awareness of the leading safety and health risks. According to the NSC, the U.S. is currently seeing the highest number of workplace deaths since 2007—there were 5,333 fatal workplace injuries in 2019. Let's work together to get that number WAY down! Following this year's theme, The Year of the Safety Hero , NSC will be focusing on a different topic during each week of June and sharing a variety of safety resources you can use to be a safety hero. The weekly topics for NSM are:   ​ Week 1—Prevent Incidents Before They S...

​The hot topic on CareerSafe's social media channels in April and May was teen worker safety. Using the hashtag #KeepTeenWorkersSafe , CareerSafe and our partners shared tips and engaged youth workers in an almost month-long conversation about workplace safety. We were thrilled to highlight so many resources for young workers—and we were a little sad when the official campaign period ended. But the conversation didn't stop in mid-May, because #KeepTeenWorkersSafe is much more than a once-a-year hashtag or social media campaign. You're probably thinking, " Then what exactly is #KeepTeenWorkersSafe? " We're so glad you asked! Laying the foundation for progress In June 2018, CareerSafe joined t...

We recently shared CareerSafe's milestone achievement of training 2 million students in our safety programs—a HUGE accomplishment! Today, we get to introduce you to our  TWO MILLIONTH   student, Nathan Lavignette. A career and technical education student at Jefferson County High, Nathan, was the two millionth student to enroll in a CareerSafe safety course. To celebrate this accomplishment—for both Nathan AND Careersafe—we headed out to Jefferson County High to meet Nathan, his teacher, his classmates, and his family.  We brought along an OSHA 10-Hour training poster for Nathan—and his classmates who had also completed the training—to sign, honoring their dedication ...

Join OSHA  and grain industry leaders for Stand Up 4 Grain Safety Week, March 29 – April 2, and learn how even small changes can save lives: ______________________________________________ OSHA Press Release: U.S. Department of Labor March 16, 2021 OSHA, grain industry leaders say small changes have big impacts Annual Grain Safety Week event focuses on how bin operators' work practices may be the difference between life, death WASHINGTON, DC ‒ Today, six of every 10 workers trapped in a grain bin don't make it out alive. This is a frightening reality, but one that the nation's 8,378 off-farm grain storage facilities' operators can change by following common sense approaches that truly ma...

  This year, Halloween is on Saturday, there will be a Full Moon, AND Daylight Savings comes to an end! This means we get an extra hour of sleep, or celebrating, when the clocks "fall back" one hour on Sunday, November 1 st , 2020 at 2 a.m.! How amazing is that?   Now although Halloween may be a little different this year due to COVID-19, we can still have fun! Here are some helpful safety tips and precautionary measures you and your family should take if you plan on participating in this year's spooky festivities. Trick-or-Treat Safety: Avoid direct contact with trick-or-treaters. Give out treats outdoors, if possible. Set up a station with individually bagged treats for kids to t...

On March 27, 2019, the CareerSafe team, along with Josh S. Flesher and Judy Stevenson-Ortiz from OSHA Region 6 traveled to Garland, Texas, home to the Gilbreath-Reed Career and Technical Center to take a look inside one of the best CTE programs in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Upon arrival, there was instant amazement at both the size and caliber of the school but also the opportunities available for the students. Everywhere you looked you could find students working together and collaborating as if it were a professional environment. The classrooms are filled with state-of-the-art technology which every student has access to. An immeasurable asset in the classrooms is their educators. Nearly ...

Growing up, my parents were never "helicopter parents." We had an unwritten rule in our house that after school, we had to commit an hour to something academic – reading a book, playing math games, doing homework, or anything of the like. Then, we were promptly kicked out of the house to play outdoors until the street lights came on. We only had one hard and fast rule – no playing on dirt/sand piles. It wasn't until I was a bit older that I learned that when my mom was in middle school, a good friend of hers was buried alive while working on a pile of grain in a grain bin. His death haunted my mom for years. Grain processing, handling, and storage are not new safety hazards. For decades, gra...

Each year, FCCLA spends a week celebrating their CTSO and encouraging other young leaders to join in their leadership initiative. FCCLA loads their national celebration week with daily themes and enticing activities that remind members and onlookers to be spirited, confident, prepared, a friend and united in red. Today, February 11th, is Be Spirited day. FCCLA members are encouraged to kick off FCCLA week by encouraging classmates, friends and other young people to Go For the Red! Red is FCCLA's signature color and can be used today to show the FCCLA spirit and promote the organization in the members' community. FCCLA has a hashtag set up each day for the different themes. But if you're wear...

Each year, FBLA-PBL takes a week to promote their CTSO with loads of fun proclamations. FBLA-PBL encourages participating chapters to publicize their FBLA-PBL week activities, boost their membership and gear up for Spring events like Membership Madness, Chapter and State Recognition Awards and the FBLA-PBL National Leadership Conference. Yesterday, February 4th, was Share Your FBLA-PBL Story Day. Students across the nation shared their stories on various social media telling the world why they joined the organization, a favorite memory and even what the organization has done for them. Today is Each One Reach One Day. The goal is for members to talk with their peers and community members abou...

Every year, during the second week of February, one of our favorite national red-jacket student organizations celebrate SkillsUSA Week SkillsUSA week aims to give state associations, advisors, and student members the opportunity to promote their local and state level SkillsUSA programs on a national stage. During the week, celebrations take all kinds of forms. From field trips to local businesses to open houses for parents and industry partners to presenting about SkillsUSA to government leaders, SkillsUSA members mobilize and maximize the potential of the week. SkillsUSA has over 350,000 members nationwide which makes complete sense when you hear that career and technical education accounts...