NEBOSH,

Heath and safety in your business premises is essential, especially when you want to protect the safety of both your employees and anyone who visits your business. Plus, not only is it a moral obligation to keep other safe, in the UK, health and safety is also a legal requirement that must be complied with. 

To make sure your business is conforming to very high levels of health and safety, sponsoring one or more of your employees for a NEBOSH General Certificate will ensure that those people will help you on a path to a safe and happy working environment.

What is a NEBOSH General Certificate? 

If you are looking for one of the worlds most recognised health and safety qualification around, you need not look any further than the NEBOSH National General Certificate in occupational Health and Safety. Respected by the most important names in the industry, the NEBOSH General Certificate will give those learning everything they could ever need to create a safe and happy working environment.

Even better, the NEBOSH General Certificate isn’t just created for one type of business, which means you can learn valuable health and safety knowledge regardless of your industry. So, ideally, look for a manager or supervisor who would be happy to expand their knowledge and put them forward for one of the NEBOSH courses. 

Similarly, if you’d like to work in health and safety full-time, or just want to enhance your CV then this qualification will do just that, helping you to find a job and showing your seriously committed to safety. 

Advantages of a NEBOSH General Certificate?

As an employer, you can show your commitment to safety and choose a suitable employee to invest in and put forward for NEBOSH training, however, it is often either managers or supervisors that choose these courses. This is due to the fact that these overseeing roles are the ideal level for safety matters. 

This certificate comes with a host of benefits for employers, including: 

• Reduces the chance of any possible illness or injuries at work. 
• Improves staff morale operating in a safer environment.
• Workplaces with lots of health and safety training are appealing to potential clients as well as future employees. 
• Having staff with NEBOSH training means that you’ll always have lots of knowledge about adding new safety practices. 

NEBOSH National General Certificate Training Outline

Firstly, you will not need any qualifications to work towards your certificate, the only suggestion is that you understand English to a competent level. This is due to the fact that there will be some jargon, which could be confusing if English is not your first language. 

During the course, you will train in two main areas: how to pinpoint and control hazards on work premises (including the legal aspects) and how to perform risk assessments. When you’re finished, you will be able to:

• Spot issues in and put in measures to safeguard these 
• Measure the success of any health and safety measures 
• Know the legalities of how your workplace has to adhere with UK standards
• Be confident in performing risk assessments
• Create action plans for safe working practices
• Make and nurture a culture of health and safety at work

How Will the NEBOSH Certificate be Assessed?

Once you have completed the coursework, you will need to complete an exam in order to gain your certificate. Here your exam is in two parts: 

• Part 1 – Is assessed by an open book assessment. Further information about open book exams as well as frequently asked questions, is available in the NEBOSH Learner Guide – OBE.
• Part 2 – is assessed by completing a Risk Assessment at your place of work within a ten-days of the Examination date.

All exams are marked by external assessors who have been picked by NEBOSH. 

Further Study NEBOSH Courses

While a NEBOSH General Certificate is enough for many workplaces, if you need a dedicated health and safety officer or you’re looking for a career in health and safety, you many want to further your knowledge with some of the other NEBOSH courses available from Fire, Construction and oil and gas to name a few or if you are really serious then why not choose the NEBOSH Diploma. 

This course, which is at university level, covers everything an individual needs to ensure a business is at the highest level of safety competence, make decisions that will manage risk while still adhering to business needs and ensure that all regulations are met.

What Are the Benefits of a NEBOSH Diploma?

By employing someone with a NEBOSH Diploma or by sponsoring someone in your organisation to further train towards this diploma, your business will receive a lot of benefits. These include: 

• Due to the fact a NEBOSH Diploma being so widely respected and known across the world, it looks incredibly good for you as a company to have your own NEBOSH-trained health and safety officer. Particularly when you work in an industry that can pose risks to employees and visitors. 
• If your employee has successfully received a NEBOSH Diploma, it means they are highly competent in health in safety. This means that you can be safe in the knowledge that risk assessments and action plans produced by this person will be to the highest standards and in line with UK regulations. 
• When trying to negotiate or create a partnership with another business or person in the future, knowing that you have a NEBOSH-trained employee can be a real plus-point in your favour. 

Although you don’t need to have any qualifications to start working towards your diploma, it is highly recommended that you have your NEBOSH General Certificate first. That’s because, over the course, you will go more in-depth into the subjects covered in the general course, so it makes sense to have the base knowledge first. 

During the diploma, you will also learn factors such as:

• Human factors in accidents 
• The risks of stress at work
• Legal frameworks for health and safety in the UK 
• How equipment and materials can add it risks at work 

As thorough as the NEBOSH Diploma is, for most businesses and organisations, it makes more sense to look at the NEBOSH General Certificate. As this is in-depth enough to make sure you’re working practices are as safe as they can be. 

If you’d like to take your first steps into health and safety qualifications or you’re an employer looking to have one of your employees trained towards a NEBOSH General Certificate, here at Keep Safe Solutions we can get you started. Just get in touch today and we can talk you through any questions you might have.