Hi All,

I am a chartered geologist with a number of years of experience in contaminated land, environmental auditing and groundwater modelling work. I dropped out of consultancy work a while back due to family issues necessitating some time off and I am now seeking a new role; unfortunately there isn't much about. As I've done a fair bit of HSE auditing I was wondering about backing this up with a NEBOSH certificate. I've a fair bit of construction site experience (contaminated land work...noise complaint investigation etc) so maybe the General Cert then the Construction safety cert?? I hold CSCS and PTS currently.

So, I am wondering....

Where are the skill gaps currently?

Is H&S currently rather over-resourced?

Are the above NEBOSH certificates attainable for me in my current situation as a self-employed person working from home? - I am thinking here specifically of the practical element, particularly part 3 of the General Certificate - I have little idea regarding the Construction safety one but I guess I would need access to a building site - which I currently don't have.

Rather than a full-time job, would it be relatively straight forward for me to seek short term contract jobs - possibly as a consultant?

- Just to add a bit of interest to the proceedings I have been earning some money as a self-employed fitness instructor I kid you not.

Any helpful career advice appreciated.

Thanks....

I would also add that it highly depends on where you live. If you want to work in the construction sector as a H&S professional you should know that most of the times your presence at a construction site will be required. That means, you cannot work from home unless you do it as a consultant for a specific region. But as you said, you decided to leave this working life as you need to spend time at home.

Furthermore, the recent changes to the CDM Regulations has opened quite a gap (in respect to the whole HSEQ sector) for people working in the construction industry, however I don't think you have any knowledge of previous CDM Regulations to keep up as it seems the employers are after this kind of experience. As a consultant though, you will be able to find contracts, however, experience will be requested.

Try to think first and make a plan on what you actually want to do for your professional future. A little more research on the market always helps !