[Closed] Getting in to Health & Safety....... no laughing

Go mad.

Have an accident. When the H&S womble turns up to investigate, and then you can knock yourself out 😉 asking him/her questions.

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Hi
If you want a (semi) serious answer start with the NEBOSH certificate which is very general
If you are really keen you can then progress to the Diploma (which I found really hard but maybe I am just a dummy!!!)or between the 2 is something called Tech SP
There are also some industry specific ones eg Construction but not sure of others.
Lots of technical type colleges do them.
Not sure of cost anymore.
Cheers
Steve

start off with the Nebosh General Certificate

around 1200 for taught and about 800 for distance learning.

It really is just the very basics but can get your foot in the door

Then progress on to the Nebosh Diploma. Its not fatgit being a dummy, its ****ing hard, but you'll come out the other side as a fully fledged practitioner. Cost is around 7k for all 3 modules and dissertation.

http://www.nebosh.org.uk/Qualifications/

Better do a risk assessment first 😉

NEBOSH to start with as others have said.

I'm being pressured into it at the moment. I've done the IOSH which is for industry users within the workplace. NEBOSH take you on the road to management level or self employed consultant.

Qualifications alone won't get you a job in H&S. If you are already in employment then try and get involved in any health & safety committees that there might be. This will give you a basic insight into what H&S is all about. From there you can start to think about gaining qualifications. Practical experience combined with qualifications are what most employers look for nowadays.

Another thing to consider is combining the H&S elements with Environmental elements. Many company's are looking for HSE personnel rather than just H&S. Now that the environment is always in the news and new rules and regulations seem to come out daily, this would be the route to take.

Cheers guys. I'll look at the HSE route as this may open up a few other routes. Is NEBOSH still relevant?

NEBOSH is the most generally recognised H&S qualification out there so it is definetly relevant. Do try and get some practical experience first though. When i did the NEBOSH course there were a couple of people there who like you, wanted a career change. They struggled to get through the course. I'm not saying that you would struggle but they all said it would have been more benificial to have at least had some exposure to H&S before undertaking the course.

Also look at the NEBOSH Certificate in Environmental Management. I did this one last year and found it very useful.

What's the best way to get in to this industry?

Being useless at the job you are supposed to be doing is the quickest route (in every company I've ever worked in).

What's the best way to get in to this industry?

having good clipboard skills is essential ime

Isn't Health & Safety these days mostly going around frowning at people having fun and saying "stop that, someone might get hurt"?

As others have said, look at NEBOSH cert first. That and some relevant experience may well get your foot in the door. NEBOSH cert is not easy though - on my course around 25% failed and to qualify it's 2 three hour exams plus a practical. Expect it to take over your life for a few months!

Look on the IOSH website as well for more information and a helpful forum.

Be warned though that there are a lot of well qualified practitioners out of work at the moment so lots of competition for jobs. It can also be a very difficult job to do well as most companies are either paranoid about H&S or DGAS and will just get you in as a token nod to safety. There is also the pressure of always thinking "have I covered everything", knowing that if you don't then people potentially die. This does genuinely keep me awake at night although I do work in a high risk industry which employs a lot of idiots! On the plus side 3 days a week of H&S just about pays the bills and lets me run a small biking based company on the side to earn pocket money so life is good.

If you want any more info, feel free to email me.

Oh, and I don't own a clipboard!

Being useless at the job you are supposed to be doing is the quickest route (in every company I've ever worked in).

Do you wish to elaborate on that?

Cheers again guys. Some useful input 😀

H and S is basicly the ability to use common sence in workplace, something which quite a few workers and most management seem to lack.

If it moves it can hurt you,

if its blunt it can hurt you,

if its sharp it can hurt you,

stand on anything make sure it can take the weight you put on it,

fence all openings in the floor,

dont drink un known fluids,

electric kills,

vehicles and moving plant can injure you,

things that fall or can fall will injure you, wear a helmet and steel toe capped shoes,

in a foundry or steelworks metal parts, because theyre black may still be very hot.

That about sums up H and Safety.

Being useless at the job you are supposed to be doing is the quickest route (in every company I've ever worked in).

Do you wish to elaborate on that?

I think it's pretty clear.....
In the indutry I work in, if you are not actually very good at the technical role that defines the industry, but are also difficult/expensive to make redundant, you might get pushed into something thats not very demanding e.g. a health and safety role. In that ever happens to me I will know my usefulness has come to an end.....

I think NEBOSH plus anything Environmental you can get your head around, then apply to the Oil companies. There's more than enough safety stuff occurring offshore, and the HSE bods out here get paid an absolute fortune.

I did my NEBOSH General certificate a couple of years ago now, 2 full weeks having stuff drilled into you H&S bods, 1 day of exams and an on site practical. Work in the waste industry and now i'm studying for my WAMITAB COTC for hazardous waste treatment. All waste site have to have one for so many operational hours per week so you can sell your skills to others.

Also look at being a DGSA - Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor - good money in that too.

Just get ready for being called the "fun police" at work!!

Remember, Safety never takes a break!

As said have a look at the IOSH website - they have a spread of approved courses for employees to managers to sector specific, so I presume would also run some introductory courses.

having experience in the industry you are wanting to be an h & s advisor \ manager is usually a prerequsite. The nobbers that bleat on about h&S stopping threm doing their job don't look at the big picture and realise the regulatory requirements on employers and emloyees. i was an marine and piling foreman before coming into the h&s side of the industry. The department i worked for did not want me to leave, but i had made the decision - so not all h&s managers are without management skills and have a problem solving attitude raher than dictating legisation. It woud be difficult to get "buy in" from groundworkers, scaffolders, brickies etc unless you understand the build proccess rather than just the legal side. With the current commercial climate, lots of people try to take short cuts because margins are so tight, this is when common sense goes out of the window and accidents occur. People turn a blind eye to unsafe work practices until something goes wrong - then they all stand on their soapboxes bleating on about how the managers allowed it to happen.

I think it's pretty clear.....
In the indutry I work in, if you are not actually very good at the technical role that defines the industry, but are also difficult/expensive to make redundant, you might get pushed into something thats not very demanding e.g. a health and safety role. In that ever happens to me I will know my usefulness has come to an end.....

Same where I am.
That's not to say I can't imagine plenty of jobs where someone who can accurately assess the risks involved in a process are invaluable.
Someone who asks if you have a COSHH documentation for the tube of super-glue on your desk isn't that person though.

I thought he was banned from here ?

you might get pushed into something thats not very demanding e.g. a health and safety role

was going to bite very hard at that, but if you're stupid enough to believe it you're stupid enough to die early from an occupational illness or work related accident, just don't take out innocent bystanders as you do it.

Today i was called to site to advise the team on demolishing concrete canopies and supporting brackets. The site team had over complicated the process as they were scared of our temporary works procedures. I spent a couple of hours on site, sat with the project manager and site manager producing a risk assessment and method statement - the guys on site and the client were thankfull for the help. Teamwork!! It was then onto a tight house building scheme in a busy urban street to look at loading out roof trusses from the public carriageway. See it is not all about clipboards and preventing the job from being done.

The 'H&S is just common sense' crew are really ignorant. A lot of the 'safety' stuff is, but for example what are the health implications of dismantling a LCD television? Is it common sense to know that mercury is released in large enough quantities to kill you? Or is that the sort of knowledge that comes from expertise?

Is it common sense to know that mercury is released in large enough quantities to kill you

ahhhh yes, but only through prolonged occupational exposure, you can have all of the gastrointestinal, behavioural and CNS ill health effects for years first which is even more jolly.

you might get pushed into something thats not very demanding e.g. a health and safety role

was going to bite very hard at that, but if you're stupid enough to believe it you're stupid enough to die early from an occupational illness or work related accident, just don't take out innocent bystanders as you do it.

Keep telling yourself that if it keeps you content! In my work environment the talented technical people understand the materials/techniques/processes used to a far higher degree than the people that have been pushed into h&s. Thus they are reduced to regurgitating the same basic common sense rules e.g. no items stored above head height etc over and over again to try and justify their employment. Real demanding huh? At least it means the people who can actually do the job, don't have to waste their time filling in the regulatory tickboxes. Want something to back that up? Nobody good in my industry ever gets put in a h&s position. Fact.

LOL- common sense rules,

like don't take the safety cut out apart to save yourself 5 minutes as you are on bit rates....oh you appear have had both of your arms dragged into the machine, crippling you for life,

or

oh well at least I'm crap at my job, that's why I had to carry out an accident investigation for the worker who died a **** horrific death getting dragged through a rolling mill

want something to that back that up?

prick

Are you a postman angelfire?

xx 😉

oh and angeldust, care to explain the simplicity of tick box filling to the thousands that are dying from asbestos related diseases, the nurses and healthcare workers sensitised for life through exposure to gluteraldehyde used for sterilising endoscopes, the vehicle repair shop workers with occupational asthma from exposure to isocycanite 2-pack paints............oh it's all just common sense isn't it? 🙄

"He's drawing a dog!"

Tazzy - maybe you could post a link to shp mag showing the accidents where safety cut outs have been overidden or bypassed causing life changing injuries or fatalities. The guy that got killed the other week as he leaned out of the bobcat and the atm came down crushing him, the 53 year old asphxyiated in a trench collapse last week, maintenence man who got roasted inside a commercial oven etc, etc,etc. i have to carry out accident investigations and it is a pisser when you see the consequence of complacency and ignorance.

Chill out tazzy. Angelfire has to get up early for his round tomorrow and obviously needs someone to blame for the mess of his life. As a fellow practitioner you must be used to unhappy people being unhappy at health and safety instead of themselves.

you're doing it wrong, it's all about banning conkers you know 😉

oh and angeldust, care to explain the simplicity of tick box filling to the thousands that are dying from asbestos related diseases, the nurses and healthcare workers sensitised for life through exposure to gluteraldehyde used for sterilising endoscopes, the vehicle repair shop workers with occupational asthma from exposure to isocycanite 2-pack paints............oh it's all just common sense isn't it?

Yep, that would be common sense to all the people I work with. You may find that difficult to comprehend.

ace, the people you work with must be able to predict the long term health risk associated with carbon nanofibres then as the best research bodies in the world are looking into that one at the moment....I await your outstanding contribution and then we can all rest easy. 😆

Look angeldust, I'm sure you are very clever and the people you work with are also members of mensa, however that won't stop you dying in a train crash or a gas explosion or having a wall collapse on you.

Thats why H&S exists. 50 years ago workplace fatalities numbered several thousand a year, now it's around 175. H&S regs have saved many thousands of lives, prevented hundreds of thousands of life changing injuries and for smug people to decry what we do, as a job done by people not clever enough to do anything better is pathetic and insulting.

Sure, as in any line of work there are some who are not very good at it and they tend to generate the ridiculous headlines you read in the daily mail, but for most of us, we work in a carreer which makes Britain one of the safest countries in which to work. And I for one think that it's something to be proud of, not ridiculed.

LOL. How many people doing this world class research do you think have h&s positions? Your example of long term health risks from new technology is very worthwile research, but it really hasn't got anything to do with h&s officers in industry. Do you think passing on general recommendations verbatim makes you a scientist :roll:.

In my area of expertise you become a h&s officer because you are a poor scientist! Seen in happen on multiple occasions. Sorry if that pisses on your chips, but it's the way it is.

In my area of expertise you become a h&s officer because you are a poor scientist!

You obviously don't work in a very dangerous or technical industry. Either that, or yor employers don't take their responsibilities very seriously.

Our HSE Advisors are fantastic.

Do you think passing on general recommendations verbatim makes you a scientist :roll:.

no I'm a scientist that's involved in toxicology and occupational health and safety. who has developed improved work methods to reduce rates of secondary infections in orthopaedic implant surgery, carried out specialist research into occupational ill health of air crew from fume incidents in commercial aircraft, recently prevented a major incident which would have been on par with buncefield and I'm one of the leading experts in certain fields of my profession.

I can also tick a box now n then

I'd love to come and play in your world though, it sounds a piece of piss. xx

Angeldust, you are Jeremy Clarkson (complete with fake doctorate) and I claim my £5

🙂

Angeldust, you are Jeremy Clarkson (complete with fake doctorate) and I claim my £5

🙂

no I'm a scientist that's involved in toxicology and occupational health and safety. who has developed improved work methods to reduce rates of secondary infections in orthopaedic implant surgery, carried out specialist research into occupational ill health of air crew from fume incidents in commercial aircraft, recently prevented a major incident which would have been on par with buncefield and I'm one of the leading experts in certain fields of my profession.[i]

I hear you are also discovering the Higgs Boson on Monday, as long as it doesn't interfere with ticking people off on your clipboard during the planned fire drill? 🙄

I'd love to come and play in your world though, it sounds a piece of piss. xx[/i]

If you are doing so in your capacity as a h&s officer, then yes, it would be a piece of piss. Can't argue there! 😆
If that comment is an attempt to disparage my profession, then you just look desparately defensive, as I haven't mentioned what I do. Care to proove otherwise?

Angeldust, you are Jeremy Clarkson (complete with fake doctorate) and I claim my £5[i]

😉

as long as it doesn't interfere with ticking people off on your clipboard during the planned fire drill?

If you are doing so in your capacity as a h&s officer

I'm not, I've explained what I do....keep up 😆

If that comment is an attempt to disparage my profession, then you just look desparately defensive, as I haven't mentioned what I do

not in the slightest, but if you'd care to enlighten me, I'll happily demonstrate to you how proper health and safety applies even in whatever it is you do. big kisses XX

it's nice to see a moderately well educated troll for once though, although you are playing the "box ticker" a bit too much. One of the more experienced trolls would have changed tack at least twice by now 😉

no I'm a scientist that's involved in toxicology and occupational health and safety. who has developed improved work methods to reduce rates of secondary infections in orthopaedic implant surgery, carried out specialist research into occupational ill health of air crew from fume incidents in commercial aircraft, recently prevented a major incident which would have been on par with buncefield and I'm one of the leading experts in certain fields of my profession.

and yet still, demonstrably, a bit thick 🙂

boriselbrus - Member

Thats why H&S exists. 50 years ago workplace fatalities numbered several thousand a year, now it's around 175. H&S regs have saved many thousands of lives, prevented hundreds of thousands of life changing injuries and for smug people to decry what we do, as a job done by people not clever enough to do anything better is pathetic and insulting.

The planet is full so let a few go ...

and yet still, demonstrably, a bit thick

ACE!! 😆

*why else would I ride singlespeed? it's only because gears confuse me. much like the lightening fast wit and repartee on here 😉

Right. Im gonna bite.

1st. Twitter for jobs surprisingly is very good #h&S.
Try and get training and a job within the firm you currently work for as you will know the work and WILL find it easier to apply the H&S logic.

As for H&S being a job for the numpty. Yes and no. Ive met a lot of incomunicative, ignorant and impractical H&S people over the years. However ive also met an equal number of open minded and intensley practical people who have helped business progress.

As a small example. With a laser show waiting for the completion of a certain tall pointed building in that there london the pressure was very much on for trades to speed up. Enter a foriegn contractor throwing caution to the wind and letting workers throw caution (and very likely themselves) to the wind too. At 86 floors up its nice if people tie them selves off to a fixed line before approaching a leading edge. Not if you havent enough kit and its the middle of the night and wink wink no one will see. Work stopped and kit ordered. Romanian labour to scared for there jobs to speak up. Just one of thousands of examples.

By the way. Im and ex QS who just got fed up sending small businesses to the wall by stretching payment periods and therefore making big money for "the firm"

Oh. Hello john. Gallifords seems a long time ago....

hi kev - wont ask if i'm a numpty or not 😉 yeah a few years since Gallifords, you keeping ok? I'm a bit busy with our 4 1/2 week old baby boy!!

Doing good john.

Congratulations. Forget about riding for a week or two now!

Drop me a mail

kevin DOT pritchard at worksafeconsulting dot co dot uk

Bigsi,

made the same switch by accident, 2 years ago.

H&S is about people and business culture change. If you are a people person with a good sales/presentation techniques and the ability to help people find their own solutions AND enjoy doing this, it's probably a good move.
If you prefer working solo and frequently find people frustrating, annoying stupid or arrogant and don't like dealing with them, it may not be the right career move for you.

I can't help with the qualifications thing as I am not UK based.
Good luck.

For H&S to be properly effective, the management of any company need to be involved and they have to be the ones that drive it. Despite whatever gets said about an H&S Professional, they are not actually in charge of H&S in the workplace. The role of an H&S manager is to monitor & measure the system and to make sure it is effective. Line managers are responsible for H&S matters in their respective departments. The H&S manager is there to provide support and advice when required.

I work in the oil & gas industry in QHSE and am a firm believer in the common sense approach. I don't have the answers for everything and rely on the guys who are actually exposed to the hazard to give feedback on how to make things safer. I do also have a technical background having spent many years both on and offshoe working in various engineering roles.

As mentioned previously, H&S is a legal requirement in the workplace and another role of the H&S professional is to keep the company out of court. Of course you will get resistance when you try to bring about change ( mainly from the "I've been doing this for 20 years and never had an accident" brigade) but whether anybody likes it or not, H&S is here to stay.