Posted By Frank Hallett A huge assumption and based upon no real evidence. Hi M Darcy Perhaps it's because those very same employers know that there is a professional body called IOSH and it happens to be the only professional body in the UK that has any sort of QA system to define the various grades? Whether you agree with the internal grading issues is not relevant to this point. Just because a recruiter calls for a particular qualification doesn't mean that they know what it means nor understand whether it's actually a relevant definition of competence. For instance, the standard required in many job adverts to demonstrate competence for many H&S professionals is still the NEBOSH Gen Cert - where's the IOSH bit in that? If the recruiter was actually competent [or guided by truly competent advisers] the advert should not specify [for example] CMIOSH without someone having produced a job specification for the post and decided that CMIOSH was the correct standard for that role. Frank Hallett

Posted By Dennis G From the Irish Health and Safety at Work act 2005 (2) (a) For the purposes of the relevant statutory provisions, a person is deemed to be a competent person where, having regard to the task he or she is required to perform and taking account of the size or hazards (or both of them) of the undertaking or establishment in which he or she undertakes work, the person possesses sufficient training, experience and know- ledge appropriate to the nature of the work to be undertaken.

Posted By Jonathan Sandler CMIOSH what starts in Ireland, legal wise, normaly ends up over here, as far as the Irish Health Safety and Welfare Act 2005 they seem to be well infront of us.

Posted By Robert K Lewis But it is not a great deal different to the MHSWR definition. The current consultative document from the HSE on Managing Competence for Safety Related Systems provides some food for thought and you have until Feb 28th 2006 to respond. I think there is a link from the homepage. Bob

Posted By Descarte Where as competency in the Safety of Pressure Systems regs quite literaly states competence for a major or intermediate system requires a member of staff of "chartered" engineer or equivilent status. Could it not be in future competency for other areas engineering or safety will required a chartered status? Discuss :-)

Posted By Robert K Lewis Out of interest the HSE consultative doc I referred to above includes Attitude and Behaviour within its definition! Bob