The Maine Career and Technical Education team is pleased to be able to offer secondary CTE schools an opportunity to update and renew their safety checklists and policies. The CTE team has provided a Perkins targeted grant to David Dorr, Director, Somerset Career and Technical Center to facilitate this joint project.
The purpose of this grant is to create an opportunity for secondary CTE schools to work together to build effective safety programs with the possibility of becoming SHAPE certified through the Department of Labor.
The working partnership between DOL, DOE and CTE will soon produce policy guidance that meets DOL requirements. This will be made available to all of Maine’s CTE schools in the near future through Maine DOE’s CTE website.
This grant will enable a cohort of secondary CTE schools to work collaboratively through a process that will allow all CTE schools to benefit by creating effective safety policies and programs that make sense and are easy to implement.
Data will be accumulated to help track trends and to correct deficiencies. The additional product from this grant will be the creation of a digital library of professionally OSHA-approved plans, checklists and policies which can be share with all Maine CTE schools.
OSHA Train the Trainer Courses will be offered for schools to get teachers certified to teach the OSHA 10 hour course at their schools. Schools that participate in this cohort will have an effective safety program when they are finished.
With guidance, these programs can be implemented in each school and be consistent among CTE’s. There will be a common database created for tracking trends and sharing information among CTE schools. Schools will have a direct pathway for SHAPE certification while safety hazards are identified and mitigated. Common forms and equipment safety training procedures can be shared. A digital library will be created for this purpose. This initiative will focus energy on the main concern of CTE schools across the state (student safety).
The CTE schools are partnering with MDOL-SafetyWorks and the consultant firm hired is Integrated Safety & Health Consulting. The CTE schools directly participating in the grant are located in:
- Biddeford
- Dexter
- Ellsworth
- Farmington
- Lewiston
- Machias
- Mexico
- Naples
- Rockland
- Sanford
- Skowhegan
- Waterville
- Bangor
For more information on Maine’s CTE program, contact Career and Technical Education Director Margaret Harvey at margaret.harvey@maine.gov or 624-6739.