I'm quite new to this forum so I'm going to give you my scenario and see what feedback you may be able to give me. I'm 38 and for the past 5 years have carried out the following courses Nebosh general certificate Nebosh fire certificate site managers safety training course I have funded all the above courses and taken my holidays at work to carry these out , in the hope I can get on the safety career ladder, I e been A fire Marshall 2008-2010 and have not been given any practical experience , my job was simply checking fire extinguishers and checking the bells work (boring) Since July 2010 - present.I've been a gate man on a construction site. I've asked The company I work for to allow me to accompany, the safety manager but he's to busy, I've. Also asked the PC if I could walk round as a silent observer, they are again to busy I've looked for positions and due to the level of experience I have I'm having no success. I'm really struggling to carry out my CPD and don't know what to do , I would love to be given the opportunity at an assistant level but I seemed to have hit a dead end. Any feedback would be much appreciated if you'd rather not respond through the forum drop me an email to michaeljbrown@live.com Thanks for reading

you do have a good background with regards to safety... why dont you try going abroad maybe you could get a chance and opportunity to gain a lot of experience abroad... i got some friends from UK before who work with me in construction specially here in the middle east who become a safety manager abroad... good salary and ofcourse as they always say no taxes.. hahaha but its up to you mate..you have to decide it for yourself goodluck

Michael, I have sent you an email. Chris