By Nazeer Hoosen
Corporate Wellness Week (1–5 July 2026) provides an opportunity for employers to consider employee well-being beyond traditional health programmes.
Increasingly, safety specialists advocate that safety awareness begins earlier.
Lifestylememory | Magnific.com
Workplace wellness also includes creating safe working environments that protect employees from preventable injuries. For South Africa’s construction sector, this means paying particular attention to young workers, who face disproportionately high safety risks as they enter the industry.
Young workers play a significant role in South Africa’s construction industry, a reality that is particularly relevant during Youth Month, which highlights the importance of empowering and protecting young people in the workplace. They bring energy and adaptability to a sector that remains essential to infrastructure development, economic growth and job creation. In a country where youth unemployment remains a major social and economic challenge, construction can offer a crucial pathway into the labour market, particularly for young people entering technical, artisan and site-based roles.
However, young and inexperienced workers are also among the more vulnerable groups on construction sites. The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that young workers aged 15–24 experience up to 40% higher rates of non-fatal occupational injuries than older workers. In construction, where hazards such as working at height, moving machinery, electrical risks, falling objects and changing site conditions are part of daily operations, this vulnerability demands focused attention.
Improving safety outcomes for young workers is therefore not only a compliance issue but also a long-term investment in the construction industry’s future safety culture.
Understanding the risks
Young construction workers often enter the workplace with limited practical experience and exposure to occupational health and safety (OHS) principles. Although they may receive general instruction during induction, many have not yet developed the confidence or judgement to recognise risks, ask questions or challenge unsafe practices.
The risk is not only technical but also behavioural. Young workers may feel pressure to prove themselves, avoid appearing inexperienced or keep up with older, more experienced colleagues. In fast-paced construction environments, where deadlines and productivity pressures can dominate, this may discourage them from reporting hazards or seeking clarification before undertaking unfamiliar tasks.
Common risk factors include insufficient supervision, limited hands-on training, a lack of hazard recognition skills, poor communication, deadline pressures and uncertainty about workers’ rights and responsibilities. For this reason, structured onboarding, ongoing training, visible supervision and mentorship are essential.
The early years of employment are especially important. The behaviours young workers develop early in their careers often shape their long-term approach to safety. If they learn from the start that safety is practical, respected and actively enforced, they are more likely to carry those habits throughout their working lives.
Closing the Occupational Health and Safety gap
One of the major challenges facing the industry is that OHS education is often introduced only after a young person has entered the workplace. By then, there may already be gaps in safety awareness, risk perception and confidence.
This reactive approach places unnecessary pressure on employers, supervisors and new workers. It also means that many young people arrive on site without a basic understanding of workplace hazards, personal protective equipment, emergency procedures or the importance of reporting unsafe conditions.
Increasingly, safety specialists advocate that safety awareness begins earlier, before young people enter high-risk sectors. Just as learners are exposed to road safety, health education and environmental awareness, basic workplace safety can also be introduced as a life skill.
This is where FEM’s Health and Safety School Awareness Programme serves as one example of an industry initiative aimed at addressing this gap. By bringing safety education into schools, FEM helps bridge the gap between education and employment. These initiatives are intended to support early awareness and do not replace formal workplace training and regulatory compliance obligations. The programme introduces learners to basic workplace safety concepts before they enter the industry, helping them understand hazard recognition, personal responsibility and the importance of prevention.
This early-intervention model strengthens the construction safety pipeline. It prepares future workers before they arrive on site and fosters a more proactive culture of injury prevention.
Continued in Part 2…
