Hi all. A bit of chat required, it's lonely here!

I got into H&S after taking (not so) voluntary redundancy 4 years ago. My background is civil/municipal engineering, degree qualified, with a bias towards highways, drainage, facility maintenance and civic project planning, so H&S was ingrained and came fairly easy. In actual fact I had been asking to be NEBOSH trained for several years before the axe fell. The budget never stretched that far and in the end didn't stretch to my wages either!

After completing the general Certificate and Fire Certificate whilst on the dole I got a job as HSO with a local charity and have been there since. The work is very rewarding, pretty varied across retail, clinical, housekeeping and facilities to name but a few. and I also CDM'ed a couple of new build projects for them as I had a (now outdated) CDM qualification. It's pleasant but the pay is dire as you would expect and I'm not getting any younger.

In hindsight I should have continued straight on with the Diploma when I started work but the costs kept going up and as mentioned the pay is a struggle. Now I have the snifter of work at least assisting with this which has forced me to start planning ahead with my career ahead, which is something I'm rubbish at!

I've read all about the NEBOSH vs other routes to Grad IOSH dilemmas, and appreciate that HR bods are not always consistent in their approach to job requirements. I've been quoted 2 years to to the Diploma, and quite frankly at 48 if I was going further I'd rather get it done asap.

At the same time I'm concerned however by the amount of NEBOSH qualified people who seem to struggle gaining employment in this part of the world, at least where they would wish to work. I get incredibly nervous at interviews and generally don't come across well. It's frustrating as I'm pretty articulate (you should read my watertight policies!) but there is something unnatural about the interview process that tips me over the edge. I have a good broad work experience and a technical degree but I recall how it felt not getting a single interview for over a year.

Any thoughts from experienced H&S people? I don't think I'm alone in operating in something of a bubble here. I can work independently easily but have much more experience of working as part of a team. Just bouncing career ideas around just isn't possible at my current work

Thanks for the encouragement. It may be an age thing too, the thought of yet another training course takes me to nearly 50. I suppose their is a nag in the back of one's mind about how employable you are then, although perhaps H&S is one career where aged and sagely wisdom is appreciated!

I was also perhaps under a illusion that qualified H&S professionals were in demand, then read a few posts here and chatted to a few visiting inspectors here that concluded the role was as vulnerable as any other. I was also told years ago that degree qualified engineers would be a rare and valued resource decades ago. Not quite, or it depends if you want to live in and around London.

You are correct of course that I should look around now rather than waiting 2 years until the Diploma is done. The salary can only go up and would pay back my current employer.

I don't want to sound ungrateful about my current role either, it has been a fantastic lifeboat after a long period of uncertainty and a thankfully shorter period of redundancy. It has broadened my H&S experience massively from construction only and boosted my confidence. I find H&S comes naturally, the thing I do struggle with is the volume and slight isolation. Joining in some local IOSH activities would help.

Cheers

Hi again

Forgot to mention .... I,m 61 and I have just booked myself on another 2 training courses. Your never to old to learn; when you stop learning you stop living.

Old git -- with attitude

GradIOSH and struggling to get a look in? Sorry but that is a worry!

I'm in the North East BTW, home Co.Durham, work Teesside.