NEBOSH in Everyday Life

| Friday, October 12, 2012
By Gordon Michaels


The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety (NEBOSH) has been providing qualifications in health and safety, as well as training for good environmental practice and management for over thirty years. NEBOSH plays a key part in keeping Britain's workers safe by making sure that employers are trained in, and comply with the minimum safety requirements laid down in the law.

Recognised worldwide

From an introductory level all the way up to a professional level, NEBOSH provides a certification covering a range of subjects in 33 countries across the world. With 400 training providers certified, and 180,000 people holding a NEBOSH accredited certification, you can be sure you won't be alone when your choose to get certified with us.

Many professional membership bodies (e.g. the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health and the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment) recognise NEBOSH accreditation, and NEBOSH is ISO 9001 certified, and holds Investors in People Status.

Note that NEBOSH is the examining board providing syllabi and practical coursework exams, and although they don't directly provide training, all course providers must be NEBOSH certified.

Qualification Grading

Three grades of qualification are awarded by NEBOSH: Award, Certificate and Diploma. A Diploma indicates professional knowledge of the subject, and an Award indicated a good introductory knowledge.

Risk Assessment

Whatever kind of business you are involved in, you are required to carry out health and safety risk assessments, to let the government assess how safe an environment you are providing for your staff. It can be difficult to know what to do when beginning as an employer, so keep these five steps in mind when carrying out your own workplace risk assessment: Firstly, identify any clearly dangerous aspects of your working environment. Secondly, determine who may be affected by said dangerous aspects of your working environment. Thirdly you must decide upon the degree of danger involved, by looking at the chances of someone having an accident involving the problems outlined in steps one and two, and decide how severe these accidents might be. Fourthly, identify any existing protocols in place to minimise the risk of said dangerous aspect, and finally, record all of this in a suitably presented form.

Dangers of an Office Environment

Often, employers overlook the dangers involved in an office environment thinking that the only hazardous environments are ones in which manual labour is taking place. Is it easy to fool yourself into thinking that offices are 'safe places'. This is largely not the case.

Although it is true that offices do pose a much lesser risk than the manufacturing and construction industries, they are far from risk free. It is na"ive to assume that accidents can never happen just because the majority of your employees use a computer or fill out paperwork for the majority of their day.

Often, it is even more important to look out the not so obvious (and often overlooked) office place risks that your employees are exposed to, and take adequate measures to protect them against these. Risk assessments, especially for seemingly risk-free areas, should be treated as a very serious matter indeed. Not only is this required by law, but you owe it to those in your employ to do your best to guarantee their safety while they are working for you.




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