Getting Started in Health and Safety
When choosing an entry level course the first things that should be considered are always the simplest, is this course right for me? And what will I have gained by going on this course?
Entry level courses are exactly that, and in our industry it’s no different, they are designed to help you to enter the world of Health and Safety, to start thinking about the responsibilities that you may hold in your workplace, and how you can ensure a safe working environment is present for you and those around you.
Both NEBOSH and IOSH offer 3 Day entry level awards to build a person from no prior knowledge to a level of competency suitable to manage the safety of others. Whether you intend to take your training in Health and Safety further, or you want to be able to understand the hazards of your work place and take better steps to controlling risks, an entry level course is a good first foot forward.
What are the differences?
So what are the differences between the two qualifications being looked at in this article…?
NEBOSH
The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) is a charitable organisation originally founded in 1979 since then they have been implementing Health and Safety across the world by maintaining high standards of education with their qualifications. NEBOSH is a household name in the world of health and safety, and they claim that research they have done showed that 85% of Health and Safety job advertisements in the UK insist on some form of NEBOSH qualification being held by applicants.
The NEBOSH Health and Safety award is designed as a first course to build up knowledge of on Health and Safety to any person that needs to improve their understanding of what makes an environment safe, how to control for risk factors, and then how to apply them to a workplace to try and reduce risk of accident and injury. This course has both international and national relevance, and is a very good base on which to build a NEBOSH General Certificate or International General Certificate. NEBOSH Currently work in over 132 countries, so their courses are made with international application in mind.
IOSH
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) are a health and safety charity founded in 1945, and since then they have decided to keep things simple with the motto “A safe and healthy world of work”! However, they are by no means a simple group, they work to set health and safety standards with governments, policy makers and companies across the globe putting increased safety, health and well-being at the forefront of all they do.
As such their Managing Safely Certificate is designed to help managers to understand the responsibilities that they have to undertake in order to maintain standards of safety. The idea of the IOSH Managing Safely courses is to develop a competent person who can properly maintain a safe environment, by identifying and controlling risks and hazards. The course uses easy to understand case studies and directed content aimed at applying safety principles to your workplace to create a holistic understanding of what you can do to help reduce risk. Part of the course focuses on developing the skills to investigate workplace incidents appropriately as they may occur, which is a useful skill for any manager to be equipped with. Upon successful completion of the course the candidate receives an IOSH Certificate of Managing Safely to indicate that they have finished an IOSH approved course.
Things to Consider
The final thing to consider when looking to do an entry level health and safety qualification is where to get it. NEBOSH Require that all training centres providing their qualifications have a valid and up to date agreement with them, this ensures that the quality of teaching is high and the education materials are all relevant to the course. IOSH also ensure that their training providers have up to date, high quality trainers and materials to deliver the best quality of education possible. As such, whether you’re looking for a NEBOSH or an IOSH Course, always make sure that the place you are getting your qualification is appropriately licensed to deliver it the course.
ACT Associates
We here at ACT are licensed providers of many courses that both NEBOSH and IOSH have to offer, and we believe that our tutors deliver a very high standard of education. We have been providing training for over 25 years across the UK and have found that our training for both NEBOSH and IOSH courses have achieved excellent pass rates.
If you would like any more information on either of the courses described in this article then please feel free to get in touch with our team, we have a team of friendly, knowledgeable staff ready to give advice on how to get started in Health and Safety and where you can go from there.
Courses starting soon
Our nearest dates for the IOSH Managing Safely course are September 9th-11th and December 9th-11th in Stourbridge and Glasgow.
Our nearest dates for the NEBOSH Health and Safety at Work are August 12th-14th and October 7th-9th in Walsall.
Contact Us
To find out more information on when and where these courses are running, please contact us today on:
Phone: +44(0)1384 447915
Email. actsales@actassociates.co.uk