I'm looking at attending one of the following but am confused as to which one! I already have quite a good understanding of the risk assessment process applicable to fire and an awareness of the different british standards, Docs B and M and the new BS9999, however I would like to broaden this knowledge and get more into the nitty gritty of fire safety, engineered solutions, how they work and how they can be used. The courses I can see on offer are:- 1) nebosh national certificate in fire safety and risk mangement 2) iosh fire risk assessment (principles and practice) followed by fire risk assessment the next level 3) IFE fire safety course & fire risk assessment part 1 I notice the NEBOSH course is split into three units, the first one being about management of H&S, which I already have a good understanding of and also it says 'no previous H&S or fire safety knowledge is required' to attend the course, which concerns me that the course may be pitched at a basic level and will go over a lot of what I already know. Also, the course syllabus doesn't mention any of the british standards, engineered solutions etc so I am wondering just how in depth this course goes. The two IOSH courses look good, again they look to cover an element of what I already know, but they also look to go into detail on the other bits too. And then you've got the IFE course, which doesn't specifically mention british standards or engineered solutions, but seems a bit more than the NEBOSH course but maybe not as much about the nitty gritty as the IOSH course. Any ideas or comments from experience of any of these courses? Or are there any courses i've missed?

JW I would imagine that those three courses are below the level that you are looking for. For more engineering based training, have you had a look at the FPA website? I've linked direct to their training pages below, hope it is of help. http://www.thefpa.co.uk/Services/Training/

Haven't looked in detail through the IFE or FPA's website, but does anyone know the main differences between the two?

It's a difficult one as I don't want to practice as a fire engineer, far from it! Although i want to be able to understand the different principles behind evacuation strategies, means of escape (what's acceptable and what isn't), different building structure and compartmentation etc etc but without going into so much detail I drown!

I think your are taking the wrong approach - please don't go down the Nebosh route with this as it won't help you very much other than adding another certificate to your collection. I would personnally contact your local fire service and speak with their enforcement officer / fire safety enginneer - from experience I am sure they will be happy to provide guidance. I would suggest they will likely tell you to contact C & S Todd, specialist (independant) fire safety consultants in FRA training / enginneered soloutions for the Fire Service and British Standards (they actually train the fire service). In fact if I recall correctly they wrote PAS 79. Gary