Health & Safety Enquiry

JTeague377 · Post by **JTeague377** » Sun Jul 23, 2017 3:56 pm

Hello Everyone

,

Looking for some help.

I have recently completed and gained the NEBOSH General Certificate qualification. I am now looking to land a job in the Health & Safety sector, a lot of the jobs that I have looked at online require you to have the NEBOSH General Certificate aswell as being a chartered member of IOSH.

Does anyone know if being a member of IOSH is essential? and would anyone recommend any further courses that I could put myself on to further my changes of getting a job in the Health & Safety sector?

Many thanks in advance,

Jack Teague

Steve M · Post by **Steve M** » Sun Jul 23, 2017 5:26 pm

There is no set rules about having Chartered, as a rule of thumb jobs 40K and over would require charter.
Jobs up to 30K NGC, over 30K diploma.

This is just my experience job hunting recently.
However, if you have lots of experience especially in a particular field being chartered will have a lower impact.

I have applied for jobs that require IOSH membership, get to the interview no mention of it, If they insisted I would go online and pay for it there and then, job done.

A lot of agencies demand things that do not make sense, often because they do not know what they are chatting about, if you have NGC and the job suits, go for it, even if it asks for NGC and Grad Iosh.

Good luck, it's a tough industry to get into but more jobs are coming out of the woodwork regularly.

JTeague377 · Post by **JTeague377** » Mon Jul 24, 2017 2:30 pm

Thanks very much for your response Steve.

Would you or anyone else on here recommend for a newly qualified NEBOSH General Certificate to also become a member of IOSH ? Or would this have no positive impact?

Thanks for your help,

Jack Teague

Steve M · Post by **Steve M** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 8:39 am

JTeague377 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 24, 2017 2:30 pm Thanks very much for your response Steve.

Would you or anyone else on here recommend for a newly qualified NEBOSH General Certificate to also become a member of IOSH ? Or would this have no positive impact?

Thanks for your help,

Jack Teague

The more you put into something the more you get out!

If you want to join Iosh just to be a member then it's a waste of money, if you want to visit the groups and meetings and participate in their discussions and activities then you will probably be getting value for money and it will help your career.

As it is there is no benefit to me joining Iosh yet, I will do it just to get chartered when I get my GradIosh, I may then wish I signed up earlier but the money is needed in my bank account more than theirs at the moment.

There may be some people who are members of Iosh already who are in a better position to help, if they do not read this post do a search as it has been brought up before, failing that start a new thread with a more informative title to draw the attention of people who are Iosh members.

Best of luck with your career

Steve

Post by **wendolene26** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 9:39 am

I am in the process of obtaining my NEBOSH Gen. Cert and joined IOSH when I started studying. I have found attending the branch meetings very useful, both from a topic information perspective and from a networking perspective. I have also felt that getting into the habit of recording my CPD record (again which IOSH held an information day drop-in where advice, assistance and information was freely available on this), has been very useful to me.

Like others have said, you get out of it what you put in.

Siblo · Post by **Siblo** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:24 am

As Steve said,

I did join to get membership and it was a waste of money, I didn't have time to go to meetings because work and couldn't do any of the personal development to progress because I was not supported at work.

i do believe it can be a benefit, but you must put in the practical work.

Post by **bernicarey** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 12:38 pm

Hi JT
Well lets clear this point up to start with...

a lot of the jobs that I have looked at online require you to have the NEBOSH General Certificate aswell as being a chartered member of IOSH.

A NEBOSH General will get you to TechIOSH, if you have the necessary time/experience to go with it.
To be a Chartered Member requires a NEBOSH Diploma, NVQ5, H&S Degree or similar and to pass a Peer Review Interview. So a huge difference between the two.
As SteveM said, Recruiters often don't understand what they are writing in their adverts and will write 'Must have NEBOSH' not knowing what NEBOSH is!

There are no 'set rules' about being a member of IOSH or any other organisation to be a 'H&S' person.

As an independent consultant (who is CMIOSH) I encounter the work of plenty of 'Cowboys' who are working as 'Consultants' who are either not qualified in anything they make public (i.e nothing listed in their details on LInkedIn, their website etc), or are perhaps proudly proclaiming to be TechIOSH but are clearly out of their depth, a case of 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing'.
This is not a dig at TechIOSH in general, as people who are GradIOSH, CMIOSH etc have all been there; it's a statement of fact that there are people out there who think that a NEBOSH General Certificate is the end of the journey.
It's not, it's just one step along the road. Most realise that, unfortunately some don't.

The bottom line is that being a member of a body such as IOSH, IIRSM, or even CIEH (often favoured by those in local authorities) requires you to uphold their membership conditions, code of conduct and CPD.

So membership of any professional body is dependant on your circumstances, if looking for a job, an employer might well have it as a requirement. I would strongly contest SteveM's statement

I have applied for jobs that require IOSH membership, get to the interview no mention of it, If they insisted I would go online and pay for it there and then, job done.

as it's not like buying your car insurance; 10 minutes and you're done. You have to submit evidence of your qualifications and experience and have that reviewed by a panel; it can take a few weeks and is not guaranteed.

Post by **bernicarey** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 12:42 pm

Siblo wrote: ↑Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:24 am As Steve said,

I did join to get membership and it was a waste of money, I didn't have time to go to meetings because work and couldn't do any of the personal development to progress because I was not supported at work.

i do believe it can be a benefit, but you must put in the practical work.

I don't believe you need much 'support' to progress with CPD, it's simply a case of recording details of things you have done to improve your knowledge. For example, you could read the monthly membership magazine, learn something from an article and then log it as CPD.
You might have a problem at work in an area you have no great experience in, so you research it, again it's CPD.
You could by a H&S book on a new topic, perhaps accident investigation and read it, that's CPD.

JTeague377 · Post by **JTeague377** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 9:38 am

Thank you all for your help with this. I will have a think what i am going to do.

Many thanks,

Jack

Elf&Safety · Post by **Elf&Safety** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:38 pm

Once you get a job in H&S, your future employer may (should) pay for your professional membership... which makes IOSH much more appealing to some

joaorosa80 · Post by **joaorosa80** » Thu Aug 03, 2017 11:42 pm

I am IOSH member for a couple of years, but now that I am looking to become a Chartered Member am I taking more seriously.
But I was stupid because you can learn and improve a lot.

AdamUK · Post by **AdamUK** » Sun Aug 06, 2017 4:41 pm

Hi Jack

As others have alluded to, IOSH is more than just a title or a status. It is the competence measure that a lot of employers use to ensure their safety professionals are maintaining their professional development.

I would say, if you are just starting out in H&S, to go along to your local IOSH branch meetings, they are very useful as you can network and meet like minded people.

All the best.
Adam