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Health and safety adviser/consultant: Tina

This Case Study belongs to Health and safety adviser.

Tina graduated with a degree in retail management from Loughborough University in 1998. After spending several years in a variety of management roles she secured a place as a training manager in a health and safety organisation.

This opportunity allowed Tina to develop her interest in the field and also to learn a lot more about the challenges of the role whilst working alongside colleagues who were delivering both health and safety training and consultancy services.

After six months in the training role, Tina made a sideways move to the role of health and safety adviser. Initially, whilst training, she worked on smaller projects alongside experienced colleagues. Personal development was encouraged but this was expected to be completed predominantly in her own time.

Tina undertook various courses on the construction industry, especially its health and safety aspects, over a four-year period. This allowed her to form a sound knowledge base of the industry, the common issues faced by companies and the range of legislation that affects them. She is currently a self-employed consultant and plans to take a series of National Examination Board for Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) courses to extend her knowledge further within the field.

Tina says, 'It's common for health and safety advisers to specialise in a particular filed. You can build up a body of knowledge that's specific to the area in which you work. Health and safety legislation is so vast that a client often prefers to deal with an adviser who's considered an expert in their field rather than a generalist. In the health and safety industry, professionalism is key, as is a passion for the work and a desire to keep people safe. Some people think of this type of work as a stereo-typical boring role, but in fact the opposite is true. If you become a health and safety adviser, you'll be in a role where no two days are the same, you have an enormous amount of responsibility, and you're making a difference to the safety and wellbeing of a number of people.'

Case Study sourced by Tara Christopher of AGCAS, 19 May 2008.