Evaluation of ergonomic conditions and risks in vocational high school workshops in terms of occupational health and safety

Occupational health is a very broad and comprehensive subject. The main focus of occupational health is the health of working personnel. In order to maintain occupational health, the mental, social and physical well-being of all sector and professional employees must be protected and improved. According to another definition, occupational health is the body of systematic and scientific studies carried out to protect against environments and situations that may harm health for various reasons during the execution of work in the workplace. Ergonomics; It is a branch of science that emerged as the study that provides the connection between work, workplace and employee. In short, ergonomics is the process of making the physical environment compatible with humans. In our age, with the increase in industrialization, the relations between humans and machines have increased, and human-friendly environments, goods, machines, offices, etc. It has become mandatory to meet the requirements of the physical environment. So that; Nowadays, it is not only about the ergonomics of the physical environment, but also about the compatibility of subjects such as computer software and internet web design that appeal directly to the human mind to employees in terms of mental perception, easy control and guidance. For all these reasons, ergonomics is a set of approaches that are the common field of study of many branches of science such as engineering, architecture, medicine, physiology, anatomy, psychology and sociology. Vocational high schools have departments such as Information Technologies, Electrical-Electronics Technology, Motor Vehicles Technology, Plumbing Technology and Furniture Field. Applied courses of these departments are taught in workshops. In vocational education, students are introduced to micro-level production and they make their first production in these schools. The amount of time spent in workshops also causes the importance of ergonomics to increase. For example, due to the time spent in front of the computer in the Information Technologies workshop, the design of the workshops in accordance with physical ergonomics becomes important. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the ergonomic conditions of workshops in vocational high schools, which have a large place in our country, in terms of occupational health and safety.