Posted By Merv Newman
Alan,

Get qualified as high as you can. Then go for a new job, preferably in a different industry.

A consultant, in any field, needs to be able to draw on a wide variety of knowledge and experience. You must be ready to either answer the many different questions and challenges thrown at you by prospective clients, or to admit honestly to your lack of knowledge and competence to advice. The more you know and have experienced, the higher your value to your client.

I have a horror of "consultants" straight from university who believe they have the right to "consult" to experienced managers.

Bon courage

Merv Newman

Posted By Michael Spanczak
Alan,
the previous responses give you some very sound advice. Since you are quite young I stongly advise you to take a year out and do a full time MSc course. Personal experience of both full time and part time study tells me that it can be painful trying to get qualified at that level and hold down a day job. Aston University used to be the best course on the block but that is now gone and some good contenders now seem to be at Loughborough University and Nottingham Trent. If their courses are like the Aston one expect to work hard. The toughest thing that I found was coming up with a worthwhile project subject, it is best to start thinking about that now. I admire your vision and ambition but would remind you that OHS is a subject that has a pre-requisit for life experience so I suggest that you get as much exposure of the various aspects of the workplace as possible, you can do that by working for an established consultancy. Finally in lieu of age and grey hairs you need to develop another selling edge, find some areas that you can specialise in and sell that added value e.g CDM, Railway Safety Assurance Cases etc.

Posted By Michael Miller
Ouch!