Nebosh basic Health & Safety certificates - worth it?

[Loose_Cannon]

Apologies if this has been asked recently, the search function appears up the spout...

I'm currently unemployed since August and thanks to the dole office am on a NEBOSH general certificate alongside a bunch of squaddies leaving service. Question is, the job centre seem to be dishing this qualification out to everyone which to my mind devalues it massively.

I was pretty chuffed to get on the course as it costs me zilch, and had I still been with my old employer was due to be sent on it anyway as it was pertinent to my background. It was going to be just a string to the bow, but having spoken to various professional still seems to be a relative boom industry, in fact it's just about all we still export with opportunities abroad.

So is there any point doing any more units at the same level (Fire, Construction, Environmental) or just getting stuck into a Diploma? Been offered the fire certificate for £500 but burned through my redundancy cheque weeks ago.......

[Capita]

Loose_Cannon said:

Apologies if this has been asked recently, the search function appears up the spout...

I'm currently unemployed since August and thanks to the dole office am on a NEBOSH general certificate alongside a bunch of squaddies leaving service. Question is, the job centre seem to be dishing this qualification out to everyone which to my mind devalues it massively.

I was pretty chuffed to get on the course as it costs me zilch, and had I still been with my old employer was due to be sent on it anyway as it was pertinent to my background. It was going to be just a string to the bow, but having spoken to various professional still seems to be a relative boom industry, in fact it's just about all we still export with opportunities abroad.

So is there any point doing any more units at the same level (Fire, Construction, Environmental) or just getting stuck into a Diploma? Been offered the fire certificate for £500 but burned through my redundancy cheque weeks ago.......

If you can afford it crack on and get the NEBOSH diploma under your belt, although it depends where you want to go with it?

[GSP]

You can do the general certificate in a week fast track. So in my eyes it's pretty much worthless, even more so without some basic experience.

Generally it something you would put a shop floor worker on that's doing the HSE rep bit on the side of their normal job for kudos.

The fact that the dole office are apparently now sticking every man and his dog on it devalues it even more.

[rog007]

As an economy that is, sadly, heavily regulated and governed (hence why we are in decline due to now being uncompetitive against less regulated economies), these types of qualifications are in high demand. If its employment you seek then continue to get as highly qualified in this area as possible then you should be fine.

[Loose_Cannon]

I was in civil engineering/maintenance/design for 26 years so happy to go in a different direction if nothing else for variety, but conscious at the moment that experience is a valuable thing to chuck away. Had a healthy dose of H&S courses through the years so it all feels familiar, but it's a shame the GC is being viewed as Mickey Mouse. It's a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, not helped by the duration (mine is 2 weeks, can't imagine how anyone would cram it into 1).

When still employed the NEBOSH was a way of cementing myself as the "competent person" for a CDM coordinator role, which is still pretty much the nearest thing I could walk into. Have a feeling to be any more the Diploma is the minimum.

[GSP]

Ahh 'CDM coordinator'... A role that has also become Micky mouse for this very reason, people think they can do the role (and indeed try to) with just a nebosh general certificate.

There is those (the vast majority) that simply (attempt to) tick the minimum boxes, produce a generic piece of st PCI document, notify (badly) the project to the HSE, then pretend to review the principal contractors construction phase plan (with no clue about general construction techniques/project safety) and then fail to ever collate and produce an adequate H&S file.

Then there is the (very) few that do a cracking job ripping apart a design at every stage and seriously improving the safety of the construction, maintenance and decommissioning of a project/building.

I'll admit your design experience makes you more qualified than most of the muppets attempting to the CDM Coordinator role whilst not appreciating how much risk they are presenting themselves and their clients to by not really knowing anything about the CDM Regulations and construction safety.

Sorry for the rant, if you genuinely have an interest in the profession then fair play and good luck to you. There is just so many complete 'have a go' numpties out there that have no idea and the result is the profession is often ridiculed.