In the UK the term 'inspector' is only applied to one of HM Inspectors of Health and Safety, which you can't personally train for. Only the HSE can train you up as an inspector.

So I assume you mean that you want to be an advisor or a consultant?

The oil and gas industry is very specialised so I think you would get more response from the forum if you said what your background is.

Hi Rosa

Procuring a job in health and safety is not easy at the moment; if you have a look at the careers forum you will find lots of questions and advice on how to try to get your foot in the door in this most interesting and sometimes challenging :-) career.

Lots of very qualified people looking for not that many opportunities, and yes the old chestnut or catch 22 situation of having qualifications but no experience can be a problem.

If you are currently employed then could you not see if you can assist in managing H&S matters at your current workplace (whilst you train) as then at least you can start to build up some experience and knowledge.

Even if the above is not possible and your heart it set on a career shift then go for it, you’ll just have to keep plugging away to get an interview.

HTH
smitch

Hi I feel like I can give you a little bit of an idea of how hard it is right now. I am trying to change my career from H&S in the Army to civilian and I have been doing courses and networking and putting alot of posts up on the forum, I have had alot of feed back from people but for all the job applications I have sent out I haven't heard one back yet and I have sent out over 50 now. The problem is there are alot of very professional people in this industry with years of experience and starting out is so hard. All I can say is if you really want it you have to stick at it and don't get disheartened when you get nothing back that being said this forum is really good for help and people are more than willing to give a little guidance. All the best and if I get any luck or info or anything that might give you a helping hand I will pass it your way

Why not try looking at renewables? This is a young industry and there isn't a huge amount of experience out there as there is for oil & gas. Wind is pretty advanced but there will be an increase in wave & tidal energy in the coming years.
NEBOSH diploma is unfortunately the only real route into the world of safety (and it is a rubbish course, I haven't used at least 50% of what I had to learn and that was nearly 20 years ago! - and I know it hasn't changed as I was asked to be tutor for it, had a look at the course and went NOPE!).
Quals & experience are like any job very important in the world of safety and there in can lie the catch 22 situation.

Good luck to you!