Hi there, I am soon to graduate with NEBOSH Diploma and have 5 years safety experience in construction/maintenance and now work in aviation engineering. I am happy in my job and the work includes going overseas to other locations. I am part of a safety team and they want to know my future plans to specialize in one safety subject to become an expert in that field. The team already has a construction expert and an environmental expert so whatever i pick needs to be new, adding to the skill set of the team. I also want to be cutting edge and valuable in both aviation and wider engineering. Does anyone have any recommendations of what to specialize in that may involve some study? We have a human factors trainer who is close to retirement i would guess and i am really interested in behavioural safety if i had a choice. Long term i would like to be a consultant in a specialist area so this is a big decision for me. I need to suggest something valuable to my immediate team and situation but also worth its salt in years to come. I welcome advise from any seasoned safety professionals out there please!

I agree with the advice given above, for a technical specialty, it is probably the one I would chose too. Not sure if your colleagues would consider being an expert in communication a 'specialist' area but without it, even the best technical skills are limited in their application. I have managed and worked with many H&S folk of all levels and experience, and they all benefited as much as I did, in developing the soft skills. Training, presentation, coaching, marketing, even advanced use of IT (but not PowerPoint!!) are all useful additions to your H&S core - and for being a consultant, essential. Human factors also leans towards understanding these additional skills - Tim Marsh for example, has written about 'safety conversations' as an effective tool in influencing managers etc.