Posted By Dav

The lack of good grades at GCSE may not be a problem – many of the best safety professionals that I have come across don’t have their C.V.s stuffed with GCSEs and A Levels. They started out ‘lower down’, became supervisors and then did their safety quals later on. The experience that they gained from this route often puts them well ahead in terms of competence of someone who has just come out of university.

For starters I would suggest doing your NEBOSH cert, and it wont make any difference how you do it. Indeed, being able to complete a distance learning course would indicate to me that you were disciplined and determined. I have done both types of courses in the past and found the distance learning ones harder because the emphasis is more on you.

You are right that finding work in safety isn’t easy, especially if you don’t have experience and that is where your biggest problem will come. This always begs the question, how do you get experience if no one will give you a chance? Well the answer is, really you just need to get lucky in finding someone who will. This may prove even more tricky in the current climate than it was 6 months ago.

If you can get your NEBOSH cert and find someone to give you that chance it is unlikely that you will be on 25k to start with, but once you are a couple of years in (and if you are any good!) you should be getting to a place where you can ask for that sort of money. To go to the next level you will need to do the NEBOSH diploma. Your limit on experience will be your biggest thing to get over. It wouldn’t matter if you went and did your N cert and your N diploma, with no experience you be unlikely to find someone willing to pay you 30k.

Have a look on the SHP online jobs section which should give you an idea of what wages you could expect for your quals and experience.