Hi Iain
I know someone who gained a health and safety managers position with just a NEBOSH general certificate but in my experience this is very unusual.
In my opinion you need to plan ahead to gain more qualifications i.e. NEBOSH diploma / NVQ 5 and whist studying for one of these try to get some practical experience (the NVQ is vocational so you need to be in the profession to provide evidence for each section - this could be done even if your health and safety role was only a part of your present job role. If however your present job role didn't involve any H&S responsibility, the NVQ route may not be for you.
As you can gather from the above, it's difficult to give advice if I don't know your present circumstances.
My advice is to check out as many job adverts you can that give the qualifications for the job role you would like to get.
You will find that the 2 most requested ones are NEBOSH diploma and CMIOSH.
IF CMIOSH is what you wish to achieve check out the requirements and route required to achieve this on this website.
If your circumstances permit you might even concider a voluntary position on a part time basis in a H&S role.

Good luck my friend

Steve w

I was very fortunate that I managed to secure an Advisor role with just my NGC and limited experience, so the jobs do exist, but are rare. My advice would be to attend your local IOSH branch meetings and events with the aim of networking! I’m sure many doors will open by doing this, there is a good chance that its these people who will be opening your CV. Any experience you can gain will also increase your chances, even shadowing a practitioner for a while to see how it all works will help.

Best of luck, its worth the fight

Iain,

Please don't take what I'm saying as bosting I'm just pointing out that it's not all about the certs.

I left the armed forces 6 years ago and was lucky to be offered a job as a SHE advisor for a medium M&E company strait away with only my Construction certificate, looking after 6 sites around London, I was made redundant after on 4 months, last in first out, but was offered a new 6 month contract role on a large 2000+ person new build gas processing plant the next week, after the 6 months I moved on to another 6 month contract with a security and M&E company as a Site SHE Advisor looking after the lads working on an electrical substation, after this job I worked as a SHE advisor on a large LNG Site for 3 months before being asked to cover as the SHE Manager on a new £30m+ project looking after 15 sites with 15 SHE Advisors working for me from all over the country, I had sites from Scotland, Wales to Cambridge and Kent, this lasted for 4 years, I’m now the clients SHE Superintendent on a new build Mine project worth over £115m, and I still only have my Construction certificate and I’m “only a Tech IOSH”, as you can see a lot of jobs you get from experience, it’s not all about your placement within the IOSH hierarchy or what certs you have but it does take experience and a bit of luck to get your foot in the door of your first job

As Mr Flibble say put a good CV together, my first one explained all the different H&S stuff I did during my time in the forces and I’m sure if you think about your current / last role you can drag up all kinds of H&S work you’ve carried out.

Go on line and put your CV on several job sites keep it at the top of the pile by updating it weekly and good luck

Iain
Do you have another skill that forms the base of your work and then safety starts as an extra. For example I was a mechanical engineer and started off in '92 with risk assessments as part of my role. A year later I was asked to be the company safety adviser, and was able to barter that into a NEBOSH Cert. I have continued to work and expand into this and am now a dedicated HSE Manager for a multimillion pound construction project, having worked offshore, abroad and in several different industries. the secret maybe to start with safety as the side role in the job and then, maybe 2 years later, move and make safety the full time part of the role.
Good luck.
Gavin