Why take the NEBOSH General Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety?

This blog has been updated to reflect the latest modifications and changes to the NEBOSH General Certificate course.

Are you wondering if devoting time and money (yours or your employer’s) to taking the NEBOSH General Certificate is going to be worthwhile? Read on if you want some answers to this question. Find out how the NEBOSH Certificate can start to make some positive changes to your working life – now and for the future.

You probably know by now that the NEBOSH General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety is a great start to developing your career. It's ideal for Managers of a team in any function, but also if you want to focus more on health and safety in your role. Let's review four positive reasons for completing the NEBOSH General Certificate:

• Develop your career opportunities
• Increase your health & safety knowledge
• Gain practical skills to use in your job
• Achieve and maintain compliance in your company

Develop your career opportunities

The NEBOSH Certificate is recognised as the best qualification to start your career in health and safety. Over 120,000 people take the qualification each year. In fact, employers are the driving force behind the demand of this sought after qualification. Research of safety job adverts is carried out year on year demonstrates that over 90% of employers expect applicants to hold the NEBOSH General Certificate as a minimum.

There is a greater diversity of people taking the NEBOSH Certificate with over 70% of these students being in a management role rather than a safety specific job. Companies recognise the importance of effective health and safety and view it as an essential management skill. This widely respected qualification is invaluable if you wish to develop a career in management or specialise in health and safety.

The NEBOSH General Certificate is accepted by IOSH, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health and meets the academic requirements for Technical Membership of IOSH (Tech IOSH) and must be accompanied by suitable experience in a health and safety. You can move through the higher categories of IOSH dependent on your qualifications and experience. The level of membership of the internationally recognised IOSH is a key indicator for employers and other colleagues of your professional status.

It's also recognised by other global organisations like SAIOSH and IIRSM. 

Increase your health and safety knowledge for your Job

Do you want to know the best practice approach to relevant areas in your role? The NEBOSH General Certificate gives you the essential foundation in health and safety to enable you to work more effectively in your job. If you have management responsibilities, whether you are in operations or production or you are in a safety specific role, the NEBOSH Certificate will give you the know-how and confidence to work in the best way.

Whatever sector and role you work in, you will gain a clear understanding of, the legal requirements for health and safety, how to implement health and safety management systems based on a “Plan, Do, Check and Act” model. You will also learn the methods of controlling workplace hazards in a wide range of areas in:

• Workplace
• Transport
• Musculoskeletal
• Work equipment
• Fire
• Electrical
• Chemical and biological
• Physical and psychological

The sound knowledge gained from the NEBOSH General Certificate will equip line managers to adopt best practice in how people work. Knowledge enables you to influence the right people in your company from directors to operational workers and build a better safety culture. This in turn will naturally lead to less accidents and a higher performance. 

Gain practical skills to use in your job

The NEBOSH General Certificate course and assessments will develop your skills such as planning, evaluating actions taken, effective decision-making, management report writing and communicating objectives and tasks.

Typical feedback from people who have successfully completed the NEBOSH General Certificate is a new confidence they have gained that underpins how they work earning them more respect from colleagues. A good course provider whether it is online or class-based will bring the learning to life so you understand the concepts using real workplace examples. You can practise what you learn in a controlled environment and benefit from effective guidance.

The broad range of areas the NEBOSH General Certificate supported by typical work scenario questions covers that you are assessed on, gives you the chance to practically apply what you learn. This will include a comprehensive range of essential tools such as how to use an effective management system in the workplace, the process to developing a range of risk assessments and how to positively influence the safety culture to name a few.

Achieve and maintain compliance in your company

Companies have a duty to achieve and sustain legal compliance and protect its greatest assets – its people. Organisations that aim for best practice in their management of health and safety will automatically gain the benefits.

As a NEBOSH Certificate qualified employee your company will benefit from your knowledge and skills to meet recognised standards, legislation, codes of practice and protect people from injury. Your ability to be able to provide a safe workplace will prevent failure that can result in high costs due the staff absence, lost productivity and insurance costs as well as the negative impact on reputation and morale.

This blog post was updated in August 2022 to reflect the changes in the NEBOSH General Certificate syllabus. 

Astutis have also launched a refurbished NEBOSH General Certificate exclusively for the online formats. Click below to view our NEBOSH General Certificate!