Safety Management Career - Offshore installations

[Jakestar]

Just wondering if anyone has any experience / knowledge of working within (Health and) Safety Management within offshore installations?

Im trying to get a feel as to where I want my career to go, currently I'm 1 year into working for a european retailer as part of a 4 person team managing the H&S/Regulatory Compliance for the UK division. Its going well, Im really enjoying the job and workign towards CMIOSH.

Somethign about offshore work has always appealed, but having a non geography/engineering etc. degree Ive always assumed it would be difficult to get into this field.

[northandy]

Jakestar said:

Just wondering if anyone has any experience / knowledge of working within (Health and) Safety Management within offshore installations?

Im trying to get a feel as to where I want my career to go, currently I'm 1 year into working for a european retailer as part of a 4 person team managing the H&S/Regulatory Compliance for the UK division. Its going well, Im really enjoying the job and workign towards CMIOSH.

Somethign about offshore work has always appealed, but having a non geography/engineering etc. degree Ive always assumed it would be difficult to get into this field.

I have a mate who has recently gone offshore as a safety officer, he had done NEBOSH and was studying the diploma.

He found that he never got far with applications, he got the job via a mate who was already offshore and put his cv forward for him. They put him through survival etc.

[Jakestar]

northandy said:

Jakestar said:

Just wondering if anyone has any experience / knowledge of working within (Health and) Safety Management within offshore installations?

Im trying to get a feel as to where I want my career to go, currently I'm 1 year into working for a european retailer as part of a 4 person team managing the H&S/Regulatory Compliance for the UK division. Its going well, Im really enjoying the job and workign towards CMIOSH.

Somethign about offshore work has always appealed, but having a non geography/engineering etc. degree Ive always assumed it would be difficult to get into this field.

I have a mate who has recently gone offshore as a safety officer, he had done NEBOSH and was studying the diploma.

He found that he never got far with applications, he got the job via a mate who was already offshore and put his cv forward for him. They put him through survival etc.

Thats what I expected, shame I don't know anyone who works ofshore (not that I'm looking to change jobs right now). Connections.. its all about connections

My degree is rated between the NEBOSH certificate and Diploma, I expect Ill study for the diploma someday once Im chartered!

• goes off to network with off shore workers...*

Edited by Jakestar on Saturday 4th September 11:38

[GSP]

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Edited by GSP on Thursday 17th February 15:35

[GSP]

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Edited by GSP on Thursday 17th February 15:35

[Jakestar]

Well my degree is Environmental Health so 1/5 H&S content wise, Ive always considered the Diploma to be a little more thorough. Interesting you don't hold IOSH (or CMIOSH status should I say) as highly as I presumed most safety professionals would, any reasoning?!

Its funny, the actual legislation I deal with would be relevant (all those you metion, obviosuly not on the same scale of risk, but the theory / application / interpretaton / judgement of legal requriements and developing SSOWs are transferable skills that I would like to think I could apply to any industy!

The frustrating (well I suppose it is actually a positive) thing is that I really enjoy my current role and short term career opportunitues, I can't see me wanting to transfer to a different industry and start at the bottom again.. food for thought though!

[GSP]

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Edited by GSP on Thursday 17th February 15:36

[Jakestar]

GSP said:

Jakestar said:

Well my degree is Environmental Health so 1/5 H&S content wise, Ive always considered the Diploma to be a little more thorough. Interesting you don't hold IOSH (or CMIOSH status should I say) as highly as I presumed most safety professionals would

Ah the nebosh diploma will be a fair bit more advanced than the H&S modules of an EH degree. They also expect their answer in a completely different format to University Degrees... A right funny bunch. Where you do the different nebosh courses makes a big difference too, F&G are a joke, their own employees were on the construction certificate when I did it and they were just given the answers, everyone was!

And don't get me wrong, I am a member of iosh, but once you have been for a while, you begin to see through it. The system is poor and not enforced, of all the people i know in it none have ever had their CPD records checked, even a couple of fellows I know.

Most of my previous colleagues have been a member because it's standard for uk employers, and that's the only reason.

One of the first people I met in my job was the safety director of a client. Unbelievable experience and knowledge came from this man, and he can't stand iosh.

Jakestar said:

any reasoning?!

Yes, your no longer technically working in the uk, my foreign head office has 64 nationalities in it, none of them have a clue what iosh is, it means nothing to them.

A lot of my foreign colleagues joke about uk legislation and practices. In some instances what they suggest is scary and worries me, but in some cases they are completely right.

An example of this is a document I was reading the other day, it was german, and it was a guidance document for helicopter transfers, it was near perfect and 11 pages long. The recognised UK document was 218 pages long...

Ahh I see your reasoning, its weird that my degree gets me to GradIOSH whereas someone without a degree would need the NEBOSH diploma to get to that level, but I know its more thorough (although I did cover an awful lot at uni, certinaly more than enough for my role now and the work I did to completed for the SDP!)

I share your sentiment working for a German company, however my experience to date is that Germans will do anything for productivity but their safety management systems are brief and have major gaps!! Keeps me in a job though