Posted By Shaun Churchill
Can anyone advise me as to the employment prospects in Safety & Health overseas especially in countries such as Italy & Spain. We all joke about how other EU Countries do, or don't as the case may be implement EU Directives on Safety & Health, but there must be safety professionals in those countries somewhere?? Also are UK qualifactions (e.g. NEBOSH) recognised in these countries?

Posted By Ken Urquhart
Shaun,

I can only relate to South East Asia, and in particular, Hong Kong.

Safety Professionals in Hong Kong these days are mainly local Cantonese people. There are a few Ex Pats around but it is either that they have been here long term, since before Handover, or they have been brought in for the needs and purposes of the Companies involved. (eg Some International Organisations have personnel from their own culture/style/standards for the Senior safety management role but have the local personnel as the Statutorily required Registered Safety Officer.)

Under Hong Kong Ordinances for Safety Officers and Safety Supervisers The HK SAR Government requires companies to appoint Registered Safety officers.

Basically this requires the individual to have attained a level of academic competence, practical experience and to have completed local relevent training and to have been assessed. To do the training you must be able to speak Cantonese as the training is not offered in English.

There is an exemption but it requires that you had to be working in Hong Kong and be dealing with the local Legislation for a period of 2 years minimum before the introduction of the RSO legislation, otherwise you are not eligible for RSO status. (This status is granted by The HK SAR Government's Labour Department who run the Occupational Safety and Health regieme of Government here, their equivilant of The HSE).

The other difficulty here is getting Work permits, as understandably Hong Kong whilst it welcomes incomers and ex Pats, rightly seeks first to provide employment for it's own people and many appointments are localised.

Other issues for Ex Pats overseas to be mindful of are Language, culture, custom, existing and accepted standards, practices etc.,

Overseas working is a challnge and it certainly requires you to re-evaluate a lot of your pre conceived views and values.
You have to develop an undersatanding for the country the people and the customs and standards that you find yourself in and working with.
Although in Hong Kong English is very commonly spoken you still have to adapt your perception to the localisations of the English language and to the mix of languages and dialects.(Chinglish)

Also in Hong Kong there are many other nationals and so you get great mixes of language, cultures and understandings all on the same project or in the same work areas. You have to adapt to this.

Perhaps as Merv indicated you could look at International Companies and their HR departments for information on their employment policies for overseas Safety postings and possible opportunities.

Try also some of the UK and Major recruitment Agencies, many of them have links with overseas/international recruiters.

Look at the EC web site for European Member states application of H&S Law.
Job opportunities also are posted on the EC site, they are based in Bilbao in Northern Spain.
http://europe.osha.eu.int

If you have language skills contact The International Labour Organisation in Geneva, they advertise appointments from time to time on their web site. They also take cold applications and hold CV's for up to 2 years if a candidate has skills/abilities that they might want at some time in that 2 year period for a contract posting to possibly anywhere in the world.

www.ilo.org

Other web contacts that might help you if you are seriously looking for an international career in Health & Safety.

A LINKS page that has lots of Safety Pages including international contacts is.

www.safetynews.co.uk/links.htm

Australia:(Government of Western Australia)
www.safetyline.wa.gov.au

Singapore:
www.goc.sg/mom

Japan:
www.jicosh.gr.ip/jisha

New Zealand:
www.osh.dol.govt.nz

USA:
www.osha.gov/

Canada, you will find on the LINKS site I mentioned earlier.

Also look at the Trades Unions Pages and The International Trades Unions, they have Health & Safety sections all over the world and maybe could offer an opportunity.

Whatever your intent and interest in International Health & safety standards and working, there is lots to do and opportunities are out there, all you have to do is find them.

So get searching and writing, if organisations are looking but dont know about you and the skills and interest that you can offer you will never know about the possible opportunities available.

Finally look at IOSH web site, under Tecnical Information you will find an advisory leaflet downloadable for free called; Safety in The Global Village

Hope all this helps.
Good Luck

Regards.

Ken Urquhart