about us
Welcome to Health and Safety for Beginners - HSfB. We hope that the information on these pages is of use to you. Please feel free to download and use anything which may help improve your health and safety knowledge for the benefit of us all.
The owner of HSfB (John Johnston) was previously interviewed by a local Scottish radio station - Forth 2 for Forth Action, which talked of how this website began and the reasons behind it. You can listen to the interview by clicking the following link which will open your default audio player:
John has also created an article describing how this website began and a how John's career has progressed so far with the help of this site. You can read the article by clicking the following link:
what we do
HSfB is owned, managed and financed by John Johnston and has been running since March 2004.
Our principal functions and activities are to provide continuing support for students and professionals in the health and safety field and by providing links to various employment agencies who focus on health and safety careers, and links to various health and safety training organisations.
The Concept
Health and Safety for Beginners - HSfB is a basic concept created by John Johnston. HSfB started out as a single health and safety download for a friend which then quickly developed into a website that now helps over 50,000 students and professionals per month. HSfB now gathers tools, study aids and information from willing contributors and distributes them from these pages free of charge. The challenge is to help beginners and professionals within the health and safety profession with their studies and day-to-day job roles in a realistic and practical way.
The entire collection of revision aids and downloads are provided free and with permission from their authors to help with various courses, including: NEBOSH General Certificate, NEBOSH Fire Certificate, NEBOSH Diploma, NEBOSH Environmental Diploma; NVQ 3, 4 & 5; MSc; PGCE and more.
The site also aims to keep its visitors up-to-date with HSfB site additions, prize draw winning entries and updates through our monthly newsletter - HSfB Noticeboard.
HSfB has a unique approach to the dissemination of advice from various professionals in many sectors (not only in health and safety) through our Discussion Forums where our attitude is quite simply for the benefit of us all:There is no such thing as a "stupid" or "daft" health and safety question!"
Achievements
HSfB now has a permanent prize draw feature where many organisations continuously donate prizes for our monthly prize draws. A dedicated website has been set up to manage the prize draws:
A highly successful prize draw competition running during 2006/2007 which gave away prizes worth over £7,250 of training and learning resources, including: NEBOSH National General Certificate; NEBOSH Certificate in Fire Safety and Risk Management; NVQ Level 4; IOSH Working Safely for up to ten people; Radiation Protection Supervisor (RPS) Training Course; Guided Tour of a large multi-national organisation; The Handbook of Health and Safety Practice by Jeremy Stranks; and, The Principles of Health and Safety at Work by Allan St John Holt.
The prizes provided over 350 training hours (not including the NVQ) which had the potential for 17 lucky health and safety professionals to take their career to the next level.
Reaching over 50,000 visitors to the site per month.
Over 1,800 HSfB Noticeboard subscribers.
Over 2,400 registered members of our Discussion Forums.
Winner of the Lord Cullen trophy for safety innovation and the Fife Regional Council Shield. More details in our press releases below.
HSfB Wins Fife Regional Council Shield
About the Owner
John Johnston is a Health and Safety Advisor within the oil and gas industry and was previously a disability access consultant. Currently a Graduate member of The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and full Member of The International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM), with future aims to become a chartered member of IOSH.
After completing the NEBOSH General Certificate in 2003 at Falkirk College of Further Education, John has proceeded onto the next stage in his professional development and has undergone studies at Glasgow's Caledonian University in the professional course of Diploma in Health and Safety Management. John has since begun the BA in Health and Safety Management as a natural progression of his personal development plan.
Where We Are
HSfB is based in Central Scotland and can be contacted by following the Contact Us link.
Our Goals
We have two main goals - quite simply, to help everybody to go to work safely and return home safely, and to give away as many training opportunities and study aids as possible!