28 Feb 2021

The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) profession has become highly sought after, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The OHS senior lecturer at Boitekanelo College, Mr Patrick Manye said this during a televised briefing in Gaborone on Thursday.

Mr Manye said OHS had become critical in monitoring environmental safety within surrounding communities, especially as the COVID-19 protocols necessitated eliminating transmission of the virus.

He said perceptions about the profession needed to change, particularly as the demand had only soared during the pandemic, which did not represent the true intent of the profession. 

Despite OHS being strongly sought after in the high intensive industries, Mr Manye noted that OHS encompassed much more than just the mining industry, for example, but all industries, even schools.

He said occupational health and safety officers possessed interdisciplinary knowledge in dealing with  environmental safety at the work place, which included the improvement of employee morale, increase in productivity and so much more than just issuing personal protective equipment.

Meanwhile, senior lecturer, Health and Environment Management at Boitekanelo, Mr Baldwing Jenya noted that the profession still faced a lot of challenges in the country, including lack of regulatory bodies to safeguard its operations.

He said because of the foregoing, the field was susceptible to discredit by unscrupulous individuals, as well as low remuneration of professionals. 

Mr Jenya said the institution was working with government to improve professionalisation, including modalities of change in order for the profession to be included in everyday business activities through advocacy.

He appealed to all institutions to consider employing better-equipped health and safety officials to improve workplace safety and provide the best standards of practice across institutions. ends