Safer Spaces course: A Different Perspective

A Different Perspective on the Safer Spaces course

Being an international student who’s been in Canada since 2018, I’ve gone through a handful of sexual harassment awareness trainings. It’s quite common for almost every organization to include this kind of training during onboarding. But I wanted to share my perspective on something that really stood out for me in the Safer Spaces course.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the theoretical stuff in this course isn’t drastically different from what I’ve seen before. But what really grabbed my attention were the examples they gave and the way the material was delivered. The stories felt so real and relatable. Honestly, I’d never come across such situations in any training before, but they felt like something that could easily happen in a workplace. These examples address the kind of tricky sexual harassment issues that don’t come with simple solutions.

I appreciated how the course treated men as potential targets of sexual harassment too. They emphasized that this issue affects everyone in the workplace, and it’s time to abandon the idea that it’s only about males harassing females. The course also did a good job of explaining how to handle situations from a bystander’s point of view. They walk you through the actions you could take if you witness sexual harassment, and I really appreciated knowing what to do.

Speaking from my own experience as a white male, I get that I’m more likely to witness harassment rather than experience it firsthand. So, the course’s insights into being an effective bystander were pretty eye-opening for me.

It is also worth noting that the course is very interactive and engaging with various puzzle-like elements that helped me to understand the material better by clearly outlining and explaining the situations and examples. Overall, the Safer Spaces course stood out for me as being an engaging and unique sexual harassment training that I would recommend to others.

go2HR is BC’s tourism & hospitality, human resources and health & safety association, driving strong workforces and safe workplaces that deliver world-class tourism and hospitality experiences in BC. Follow us on LinkedIn or reach out to our team.