Hi,

I have been offered an interesting career progression from my employer to develop the role of safety officer which will cover about ten locations and over 50 staff.

I am going to be working along side the person who is currently doing the job for now and then gradually take over, as a heirachy shake up and a new director has seen his role change and he doesn't have time to do the job properally.

But I want to get this right if I am going to take the role on, so what qualifications and training should I look to working on first. And does it matter where I get the training done?

I have done in-house run Departmental Safety Officer's course & Manual Handling. I am booked to do the manual handling Risk Assessments and the Display Equipment Assesments course within the next two months. I have also covered H&S in NVQ4 Management I am about to finish.

We are a technical division so manual handling, repetative movements, allergens and chemicals all feature in our work and regular visits to occupational health too.

Any recommendations on what to look at first gratefully received.

Toni

Oh not sure if it will make a difference but I am based in central london.

Afternoon,

Stating the obvious but what qualifications has the current Safety Officer and how did they reach
their position?
If the answer does not include formal qualifications then I would suggest that the NEBOSH General
or NEBOSH Construction Certificates are good starting qualifications.
The General may be more appropriate to your company.
A NEBOSH certificate will give you a nationally recognised qualification at a level that would allow you to
apply for membership of IOSH though your experience and knowledge will be taken into account by the
application committee.

There are many training providers running courses in London, a copy of SHP will have a lot of adverts.
Hopefully your company will pay for the training.

H&S is not an easy option but apply yourself and it is worth it

Good Luck & Take Care

Hi Toni

Would re-iterate previous comments that NEBOSH Certificate is a good starting point to get you up to a level where you will be able to progressively assume the role. After that you will be then faced with another dilemma as to whether to go for the NEBOSH Diploma or other courses (e.g. degrees, etc.).

Having been in this sector now for 20 odd years still get people (and potential employers asking me) about the NEBOSH Diploma. This is still one of the universal qualifications that is seen to be a standard to achieve. Speaking from my own experience is has helped me in progressing my career.

Good Luck

I am planning on going for the general certificate and then perhaps the diploma, but I will need to approach it carefully as my predicessor has no formal qualifications, it was just something his boss expected him to do along with running a busy facility.

So I will have to bide my time over the next few months and see how it goes, I don't want to push too hard as my employer would be funding the courses and giving me the time to do them. So it is in my interest to wait.

Thank you all very much as at least now I know what to do when I get the chance to do it!

Toni