The South East Asia Skills Enhancement Programme (SEASEP) was created by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation and TWI Ltd to make a significant contribution to the reduction of workplace fatalities in South East Asian countries through the development of a sustainable programme to build capability and capacity for the safe operation and maintenance of critical infrastructure. This includes enhancing the skills of the workforce through the provision of access to quality, engineering-related education and training.
The Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s ‘World Risk Poll’ showed that there was an increasing occupational health and safety gap between the developed world and developing economies, such as some of those found in South East Asia. Some nations in the region have been shown to have between ten and twenty times the number of workplace fatalities per year compared to European nations.
Already one of the most dangerous regions for employees in the world, the growing infrastructures and investment into South East Asia could see even more lives lost at work without changes in safety culture.
SEASEP has been working to address this issue through enhanced engineering skills and education. The programme has a particular focus on supporting disadvantaged and underrepresented groups, and includes a 100% bursary for women engineers.
With an area totalling around 3% of the Earth’s land area, South East Asia is home to over 676 million people in eleven different nations, including Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Other nations, including Taiwan have, at different times, been included as part of South East Asia. Of these nations, Indonesia is the most populated, including 143 million people who live on the Indonesian island of Java alone.
Southeast Asia has been a critical part of the world trading system for centuries as well as being a hub for tourism and industry. However, statistics highlight a high level of workplace accidents and even work-related fatalities in the region.
Now operating in India, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, SEASEP continues to address the need for improved safety and skills in the region by delivering internationally-recognised training. This training, which is funded by The Lloyd’s Register Foundation and delivered by TWI, is not only bringing skills to the region, but also changing the health and safety culture in organisations and agencies.
You can find out more about SEASEP’s work in India, Indonesia, Thailand and The Philippines, below: