Evening ladies and gents,

First time poster, so please be gentle.

I have joined the site to get some pointers as I think a career in h&s might be for me.

Brief history, I am 32 years old, I currently work in a Solicitors working on defendant claims for one of the 4 major uk supermarkets as a claims handler.

I have had exposure to claims from all different areas of health and safety, manual handling, working at height, slips and trips etc.

I am a big believer in prevention rather than cure, and I am a little ocd when it comes to safety, even at home and it drives my girlfriend crazy.

I am thinking about doing the nebosh General cert and them maybe going on to nebosh national or international diploma.

I know it won't be easy but if you do the aforementioned would it be possible to get a job in the h&s sector?

There seem to be a lot of people who struggle to find work from reading some of the other posts.

If any experienced practitioners read this thread, can you please advise what a typical day for a health and safety officer is?

I look forward to some responses hopefully.

Thanks and kind regards

Hi how's it going.
Hopefully - welcome to the world of health and safety.
Not easy to break into the world of H&S at the moment. NEBOSH certificate is a good starting point leading on to a NEBOSH diploma; there are of course other routes to consider depending on your circumstances. A NEBOSH diploma and fulfilling all the other criteria required will get you Graduate IOSH status.
Health and safety roles can be very diverse, but basically you are keeping people safe from injury etc. If you want a cheaper option to give you a basic overview of H&S why not try the IOSH managing safely course.
Good luck.

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies they are very helpful and give me some insight.

I think that I would enjoy working in health and safety and I am seriously considering it, I am in a permanant full time role at the moment so I would not be in any major rush to find work immediately.

I am thinking of going straight into the national General cert before moving onto diploma once ready.

Am I right in thinking that you can only work in the UK if you have the General cert and if you want to work abroad you need the international general cert?

I wouldn't really like to ask my current employer as they usually have conditions if they pay for training such as you can't leave for a certain amount of years, so I would rather fund the training myself.

It seems like a good career although the market does seem a little saturated at the moment from responses/ reading other threads.

Thanks for the responses guys and if you have any other info or advice please pass it on. It's great getting info and advice from people who have already been there and done that.

Thanks and regards

I'm still waiting to get a full time position and there are many other qualified people out there. The 2 biggest hurdles to overcome is getting the experience in safety management and getting past recruitment companies to get a job to get the experience! Chicken and Egg.

I got my qualifications through Santia training, which I have paid for myself. I was misled into believing you needed all the certificates & the diploma, so I did all 6 nebosh certificates, failed construction and failed the 2 year diploma. I am dyslexic, which makes life interesting. I haven't forgotten the facts, I just can't spew them out in an exam. Everybody is different. Oh for an open book exam!

As you work in a solicitors office, you may not have appreciated yet the fantastic way the English law system is set up. I'm sure you've heard of the Letter of the Law and the Spirit of the Law. So many people worry about the letter of the law - the idiots! Ha. The balance of probability is closer to the Spirit of the Law, people should be concentrating on doing the very best they can for a workforce - whatever that is. So keep your OCD on tick-over, yes keep in mind the pragmatic views, but don't let it stop you from being better. Nobody should be dying or being injured at work - period. The new sentencing guidelines are an excellent example of how society is changing - for the better.

So final advise, yes go train in safety, you might not get a safety job, but whatever life throws at you, you can still use that knowledge and push it into whatever job you do. Good Luck.

Meanwhile, I am still looking to get into safety job in the Bristol area, but being short of safety management experience and confidence of my abilities, it might take a while.