Hello All, I have been reading postings on this forum the whole week and one question kept ringing in my mind, What does one really need before he/she can become a health and safety professional? Does one really need formal qualification, higher qualification or only experience on the job to become health and safety professional? or a mix of both. Or maybe commonsense to tell workers the need to work safely at work. It seems you can learn the profession as a trade, or no formal qualification needed? Can members please share their experience with us who are green in this proffession.

Earnest, you do need a combination of experience, knowlege and commonsense (or cop on) to carry out your duties effectively. I met a Senior Contracts Manager with an Irish Company. He was immediately defensive and abusive, primarily because the people he had previously engaged with had only come up with problems. It was only when the site manager tore into him while I was phoning head office that he saw that my approach was different. Yes, there was issues on site but instead of handing them as a list of problems, we (site manager, crew and I) resolved every issue with the minimum of fuss. Hence when we finished the walk about, the site had a clean bill of health. The crew were happy that they had been treated with respect and understanding instead of the usual roaring and shouting performance. The Senior Contract Manager had the guts to phone my boss (it was a six month contract) and acknowledge that he was out of order and asked that I audit all his sites if this was the way I was going to conduct myself. The reason for that story is to show you that you will need to have the knowledge to be able to carry out your duties, experience will allow you judge how you approach every situation and with those two, competence will follow. No one will know everything about Health and Safety. Network, develop contacts, share your knowledge with people in this forum and in the workplace. Treat people the same you would want to be treated yourself and you will not go wrong. As Freelance said, talk to someone impartial (recruiters for their opinion where the market is heading regarding H&S) and you should be ok. All the very best in your future career and remember most of us here are participating in the forum to be of constructive assistance.

Clairel, its alot of what I was talking about. Once the team has confidence in your abilities, confidence that they won't be humiliated for asking a question that others perceive as stupid, but to them is important. They have to feel that you can be approached about anything in relation to H&S. Hence, the way that you protray yourself is paramount in relation to communication.

Ernest I think what you really need is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Think to yourself would I be happy doing that job. Would I want better conditions, more/better PPE, more information about the materials, or training for the tools? What risks would I face, where are the controls. Don’t concern yourself about learning every regulation, generally if it doesn’t look right, it isn’t and some where will be a regulation to back that up. Experience can only come by doing the job but learn as much about the type of industry you are in, most of all engage with people and always try to talk to them as an equal. Never doubt yourself but be prepared to be wrong and admit it, always remember that the majority of people do not set out to do their work unsafely, it’s the situation they find themselves in. Never seek to admonish, what you must do is educate to promote change (at all levels). Don’t worry about formal qualifications, although they are handy if you want to progress to senior levels. More importantly this job is about what you do, not your title in the organogram. Background, either trades or academic, I've never found a clear advantage between them. You will from time to time feel your getting nowhere and the muppets are winning, but that is true for most people. Just stay in the knowledge you have the right intentions, the law on your side and most of all you are right. Most of all be happy it’s a great job if you work hard.