Getting in to Health & Safety……. no laughing

I’ve been considering a change of industry/career & quite fancy getting in to a health & safety role which will mean a complete change of industry & me doing some training either distance learning or evening school.

Now i understand that H&S covers loads of industries but are there any qualifications which cover all giving me the widest chance of getting in to it or are the qualifications specific to the requirements of the individual industry?

In short. What’s the best way to get in to this industry?

Cheers

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.

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 **** 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. 😆