I can’t believe that I have been working as an environmental management consultant and trainer for twenty years. Much like a professional footballer who is playing in his early thirties (I wish) I have achieved veteran status! My career has had its up and downs over the years. But I do not regret it for one minute. When considering the content for this post I thought I would identify what can be more challenging from my experience than carrying out a job. And that is getting a job in environmental management in the first place. The problem is that in competitive job markets, in order to be successful you need…
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Thinking About a Career in Health and Safety?
Careering into it As a health and safety tutor I routinely meet people who already work in the field of occupational health and safety (OHS). And one thing that always strikes me is that they are a diverse bunch with a very wide range of ages, educational backgrounds, workplaces and work/ life experiences. From 21 to over normal retirement age. From left school at 16 with diddly-squat to PhDs in biomechanical engineering. From building society office to offshore oil and gas platform. From none at all to 35 years in the chemical engineering and manufacturing industries. And some of them have had life experiences that have made the hairs on…
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Hints and Tips to Gain a Good Mark for NEBOSH Environmental Diploma Project
In this post I thought that we could look at some good practices with regards to the NEBOSH Diploma in Environmental Management project (known as NDEM2). For this assessment NEBOSH require you to review and critic an organisations environmental management system (EMS). The assignment is required to be approximately 8000 words and must be submitted to NEBOSH electronically. The pass mark is 50%. The Guide Although what NEBOSH requires sounds relatively straight forward to interpret, in practice there is a very specific format with regards to issues that are required to be covered. Therefore, one of the first things you MUST do is to download and thoroughly read the NDEM2 assignment…
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NEBOSH Environmental Certificate Practical Assessment – Passing First Time
In this post I thought we could look at what you need to do to get a good mark in the NEBOSH Certificate in Environmental Management practical assignment (called in NEBOSH speak EC2). The assignment pass mark is 60% and you complete the assignment on your own and as such there is no set duration, although NEBOSH state it should probably take around 3 hours. There are two parts to the assignment these are completion of a NEBOSH provided review questionnaire followed by a report. 100 marks are available in total. Read the Guidance The first action you MUST complete is having a good look at the guidance available for…
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IEMA v NEBOSH
Which Environmental Qualification is right for you In this post I thought we could look at IEMA and NEBOSH approaches to environmental management qualifications. By comparing the two approaches at the foundation and advanced levels it might help you choose which is best for you if you want to undertake a formalised environmental management qualification. Foundation Level Firstly, let’s look at the foundation level. These are a good place to start if you have no formal knowledge of environmental management and provide a solid foundation in environmental management. At this level we have the IEMA Foundation Certificate in Environmental Management and the NEBOSH Certificate in Environmental Management (we will call…
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“Hey! Let’s be Careful Out There”
As a health and safety tutor I have to introduce myself to rooms full of students all the time. I always start by telling them that I used to work as a production supervisor in an industrial bakery near Sheffield making tea cakes, white baps and hot cross buns for Marks and Spencer’s. And then I confess that as a production supervisor I had no particular interest in health and safety. I knew that it was one of my responsibilities, because it said so in my job description, and I did do some health and safety related activities routinely; such as safety inspections. But I was not particularly interested in…
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Doctor’s Handwriting
I have notoriously bad handwriting. Students regularly ask me to decipher my handwriting for them. As a consequence I write on flip charts and white boards as little as possible. I am not alone in this. Some of you have bad handwriting too. In our teched-up age most of us don’t write much or at all. Unfortunately the NEBOSH exams are old-skool in that they require you to write answers by hand over a two or three-hour period of time. NEBOSH Examiners’ Reports regularly make comments about the fact that examiners can’t mark what they can’t read. To be fair, examiners see a lot of bad handwriting and they are…
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Cheats Never Prosper
Firstly I must put this in context. Cheating, or as NEBOSH call it “Malpractice”, in RRC exams is rare with around 4-5 incidents per year, under 0.2% of those taking exams. What does however, continually, surprise us is the effort and ingenuity the few cheaters put into trying to cheat – and that they think they will get away with it. Very occasionally the more imaginative can fool the exam supervisors but NEBOSH’s own checks and controls will flag up potential “Malpractice” and inevitably the perpetrators get caught. NEBOSH are very strict on those caught cheating, disqualifying them from the exam and then banning them from sitting exams for 3-5…
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Why Don’t Candidates Read Instructions Properly?
Essential Advice for those taking a NEBOSH Practical Assessment Given the time and money involved in doing a NEBOSH Certificate, it is a continual source of frustration to all at RRC that so many fail their Practical Assessments simply because they do not read the instructions. Candidates possess the knowledge and skills to pass but by not reading what is required they end up failing. What you must do in order to not waste your time and money; Re-Sitting a NEBOSH Practical Assessment 1) Before you do anything read the NEBOSH guidance – not always easy to find on the NEBOSH website, so follow the links below: NEBOSH National &…
