New Member - Environmental Science Graduate Interested in H&S

[JohnLemon]

Dear forum members!

My name is Theo, I am a long time reader, first time poster.

I have been interested in Health and Safety for a while now, and am strongly considering pursuing a career in the field.

I graduated university two years ago with a first class degree in Environmental Science. While I was at university studying environmental management systems, a number of the books that I was reading made reference to health and safety, and I that is where my interest in the subject first began.

Since I graduated from university, I have been working for a packaging/WEEE/batteries compliance scheme called Comply Direct.

I would like to continue with my professional development through gaining some more qualifications, and am trying to decide what the best direction to take is.

I have signed up to this forum as I am hoping to gain some advice from people in the field of health and safety (and environment).

In my current role, a lot of people that I deal with are in the H&S (&E) profession and I get on with them very well and am interested in what they do. I have spoken to a few of them about my interest in H&S and they have all said that they enjoy what they do and that it is worth looking into.

I have joined the forum today as I would like to ask whether you guys believe taking a NEBOSH NGC and then taking an MSc in Occupational Safety, Health and Environment would be a good way to get into the field for someone with my current semi-relevant experience, or whether Health and Safety really is something that is best to get into through on the job experience, leading to taking the NEBOSH or NVQ qualifications?

I have been considering taking the NGC for a good year now and today I have finally signed up to an online course and am excited to start studying the content.

I was just hoping to gain some advice from people who have found themselves in this career about the trials and tribulations of becoming a health and safety professional. Is this a realistic ambition, taking a less experience driven more study driven entry approach? Or would it be more advisable to continue working in my current field of environmental management?

Any advice any one may be willing to give would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Yours,

Theo Duncan

[Alexis]

Hello Theo and a very warm welcome to the inner side of HSfB.

Very interesting first introductory post, which I shall take the time to respond properly to this afternoon.

I am sure some of our members will also reply when they too have a moment to give the response the content it deserves.

[JohnLemon]

Hi Alexis

Thank you very much for your reply and for your warm welcome!

It is both an honour and a privilege to be addressed directly by yourself!

I look forward to your response.

All the best,

Theo

[Alexis]

Dear forum members!

I have joined the forum today as I would like to ask whether you guys believe taking a NEBOSH NGC and then taking an MSc in Occupational Safety, Health and Environment would be a good way to get into the field for someone with my current semi-relevant experience, or whether Health and Safety really is something that is best to get into through on the job experience, leading to taking the NEBOSH or NVQ qualifications?

I have been considering taking the NGC for a good year now and today I have finally signed up to an online course and am excited to start studying the content.

I was just hoping to gain some advice from people who have found themselves in this career about the trials and tribulations of becoming a health and safety professional. Is this a realistic ambition, taking a less experience driven more study driven entry approach? Or would it be more advisable to continue working in my current field of environmental management?

Hi again Theo. The Environment side of your question I am sure our Environment members will offer their own experiences in due course.

Being in a working environment and dealing with the H&S side within your Environment role puts you in a really good position to go forward with your health and safety aspirations in my opinion. Relating your study to your work environment will stand you in good stead, plus you are in an on-going situation with the experience side of things, which is were the sticky wicket generally comes in to play when seeking employment. Most advertisements look for someone with experience. This you will have!

It is obvious from you introduction, that study is something you can successfully do (unlike some people who stress to the point of potential illness), so I would suggest not going down the NVQ route and going for either the NEBOSH General (NGC), thus not limiting your future job roles in the environment side of things, although, I do think environment is and will be everywhere in the next few years.

In saying the above, the new NCRQ route (has IOSH approval) seems, (according to our members and many others) to be a great way of gaining your Certificate in Applied Health and Safety and worthwhile having a look at before making your decision. This NCRQ way, however, is arguably not quite on the lips of potential employers YET! My own personal view is that NEBOSH is only the "word" for a H&S practitioner advert.....time will tell!
https://www.ncrq.org.uk/

Hope this has helped a bit.

[Stevie Johnno]

Hi

[JohnLemon]

Hi Stevie

Alexis, thank you for the following information :

In saying the above, the new NCRQ route (has IOSH approval) seems, (according to our members and many others) to be a great way of gaining your Certificate in Applied Health and Safety and worthwhile having a look at before making your decision. This NCRQ way, however, is arguably not quite on the lips of potential employers YET! My own personal view is that NEBOSH is only the "word" for a H&S practitioner advert.....time will tell!
https://www.ncrq.org.uk/

I have looked at the NCRQ qualifications in the past. As you mentioned though, employers typically request NEBOSH qualifications which is why I decided to sign myself up to an online NGC. Upon reading your post, however, I revisited the NCRQ website and have read through the syllabus of the course and does actually look really good. I also think that this mode of learning would suit my career goals, which are to establish an H&S consultancy branch of the environmental consultancy business that I currently work for.

At my company, we occasionally (but frequently) get enquiries about H&S risk assessments/management systems etc, which currently there is no one qualified to answer. As I have been interested in working in H&S before I started working for my company, I think that I have taken notice of this more than most people, and why I have decided to finally take the plunge into the world of H&S qualification, in order to be able to answer these queries and to build an additional service up around that.

I am kind of regretting spending £360 on a NEBOSH NGC course now, as I had written off the NCRQ quals a while ago due to them not being the buzzword. Now, upon revisiting them, it does seem that this course would have been more appropriate for what I plan to do with the knowledge. I may not necessarily need to use the buzzword in job applications for a while, if I am aiming to use the knowledge gained through the qualification in house and build experience through that.

I am now thinking that I may complete the NGC course that I have just paid for to build the background knowledge, then take the NCRQ dip, progress the service for a while and then move on to an MSc in Occupational Safety, Health and Environment at a later date (I have already enquired with the course leader of the MSc course I planned to attend and they have affirmed that I would be a good candidate for the course already - although I wish to take some foundational H&S quals before going for the MSc).

I am going to pull together a proposal for the director of my company over the next month or so, to explain my ambitions for the company and what qualifications I will need to get there, and hope that they will contribute some way toward the cost of the qualifications. I already have the fact that I want to get some H&S quals in my PDP, although now I feel that the time is right to start taking actions to get where I want to go.

Thanks again for your advice Alexis.

Theo

[Alexis]

Hi Theo. Sounds as though you now have your direction for going forward in your H&S career.

One thing I am confused about is..............

I am kind of regretting spending £360 on a NEBOSH NGC course now Theo

This can't be the NEBOSH General Certificate surely? The cost is much too low for this course. Could you enlighten me please Theo. Thank you.