Enabling youth to advocate for workplace safety

Work-related injury rates for Canadian youth (ages 15–24) are alarmingly high compared to adult workers even though youth are less likely to be performing hazardous jobs. This paper reports on a document analysis of youth workplace safety education initiatives sponsored by national and provincial/territorial governmental and non-governmental agencies. Web-based documents were analyzed through the theoretical lens of self-advocacy. The self-advocacy framework highlights how youth can be agentic in altering high-risk workplaces by publicly articulating their own interests, needs, and rights (Test et al., 2005); thus, self-advocacy is a critical component in studying educational programs for youth safety. The analysis revealed that instruction on workplace safety identifies safety issues to workers and tells youth to work safely but does little to promote self-advocacy in young workers.