Jonathan Nobbs, Head of Product at IOSH, reveals how his team have launched a new, innovative, future-focused safety and health qualification for 2018 and beyond.
People working in engineering, manufacturing, automation – in fact everywhere rapid technological advances bring regular improvements to processes and performance – already understand why we need new perspectives to adapt to change and succeed.
Similarly, leading organisations increasingly appreciate that a more strategic, proactive approach to workplace safety and health brings with it performance and productivity benefits.
Feedback and requests from employers – many of them represented among our 47,000 members worldwide – revealed to IOSH a growing demand for safety and health professionals who are skilled in the workplace and equally able to advise senior managers on how to work in better, safer, healthier ways, helping shape strategic direction and culture in their organisations.
To reflect this, IOSH, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, created a new business-focused qualification for a new generation of safety and health practitioners, combining business acumen with technical safety and health knowledge and competence.
Launched at IOSH 2017 on Monday 20 November, the NCFE IOSH Level 3 Certificate in Safety and Health for Business is cost-effective, time-efficient and regulated by Ofqual.
Regulated and relevant to your business
The new qualification is designed to be highly relevant for businesses and individuals, ensuring up-and-coming practitioners are well-prepared for the world of work. After completing the course, delegates will have the right qualification requirements for Associate or Technical IOSH membership.
We developed this qualification in collaboration by NCFE, a highly-respected awarding body with experience designing qualifications for business. IOSH created its course content with input from leading businesses and thought-leaders across key sectors worldwide.
It is made up of three units:
- safety and health management in an organisation
- how to influence a safety and health culture within an organisation
- a strategic, business-focused approach to safety and health
The first step for delegates will be to take IOSH’s world-leading Managing Safely course, which equips managers, supervisors and up-and-coming employees with the right knowledge and skills to evaluate safety systems, identify areas for improvement, implement control measures and reduce risk. The qualification builds on this, so delegates must have completed Managing Safely within the last three years.
Time-efficient and cost-effective
We are confident that the NCFE IOSH Level 3 Certificate in Safety and Health for Business is the best value regulated occupational safety and health qualification on the market, and we’re really pleased with how it has already struck a chord among so many trainers, safety and health practitioners and business owners.
Safety and Health for Business is taught and assessed in flexible, engaging ways. It can also take less time to complete than other regulated qualifications, so employees could spend less time away from their workplace.
We are now working with training providers, educators and large multinationals in the UK and overseas to help them explore the benefits of offering Safety and Health for Business. Larger employers can apply to offer the qualification in-house as well so long as they satisfy IOSH’s training provider criteria.
Launching this qualification forms part of IOSH’s plans to enhance the safety and health profession, one part of its WORK 2022 five-year strategy. It’s part of a drive to demonstrate how safety and health professionals can be proactive and positive partners supporting continuous improvement and business success.
