Jobs that Require Health and Safety Training

Education in health and safety is an overlooked option for many young adults deciding what to study. There is a plethora of jobs that require this sort of training background in order to be fulfilled and many of them can be quite high paying. Emcare is amongst South AfricaÕs most accredited health and safety training companies, offering its students a high-quality education that readies them for even the toughest roles in the industry.

Students leave with the knowledge and practical skills to execute their future jobs with excellent proficiency. Most businesses cannot operate without an individual in charge of health and safety. The high demand for staff to fulfil these roles ensures a constant availability of work for people in this field. With a strong training background, it is even easier to find work.

What Jobs Require Health and Safety Training?

This sort of training will open many doors in the field of occupational health and safety as there are many different career paths to specialize in. People employed in this field are typically in charge of ensuring the health and safety of the staff in their workplace. This can apply to anywhere from a cubicle office to a mine shaft.

If you are interested in a job in health safety, you must consider which sort of work environment you would be most happy operating in. This is one of the many benefits of working in health and safety. If you are at all interested in a health and safety course, you will need to know about the various career options available to you through this education. In this article, we shall discuss 4 interesting vocations that require this kind of education.

The following careers will be discussed:

What Is an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Specialist?

It is the role of an OHS specialist to ensure that all staff members of any given workplace are following the regulations pertaining to the maintenance of their health and safety. The OHS specialist also ensures that the regulations in place to preserve the workplace itself are adhered to as well. In order to determine the health and safety standards of their workplace, OHS specialists draw on analytical data retrieved from a myriad of different workplace environments and workplace methodologies.

It is their job to notice trends and act on this information for the betterment of the health and safety standards within the workplace. OHS specialists are expected to conduct thorough evaluations on the grounds of their workplaces. The same goes for any machinery, tools, or equipment as well. Furthermore, they must also analyse the behaviour and activity of the staff.

Through these evaluations, OHS specialists are required to determine whether or not their company is adhering to the regulations and health and safety standards set by the state. Whatever information they find is then also to be reported on so that companies can mend health and safety infractions. Were an accident or event to occur that puts the health and safety of staff at risk, the OHS specialist will have to conduct an investigation into why and how it happened.

They will then have to implement workplace changes that preventing such occurrences from happening in the future. It is often required of OHS specialists that they directly engage with the employees of their company in order to run health and safety training workshops. Staff must follow whatever procedures are generated by the OHS specialist for the betterment of working conditions.

Training seminars conducted by OHS specialists will also see them educating staff on how to use any safety equipment in the workplace. OHS specialists must also assess the efficacy of pre-existing health and safety programs in the workplace. Their job is one of constantly evaluating and preventing potential health and safety hazards in the workplace.

What Is an Industrial Hygienist?

Industrial hygiene is another career choice for those undergoing health and safety training. Much like an OHS specialist, an industrial hygienistÕs job is to ensure the health and safety of staff in a workplace. Their job also extends to that of ensuring the health and safety of neighbouring communities situated near their workplace.

Industrial hygienists employ their scientific expertise to analyse and regulate various kinds of hazards that could occur within any given workplace. When work must be conducted in and around harmful materials and conditions, industrial hygienists determine the appropriate exposure time to negate sicknesses and injuries. Part of the industrial hygienistÕs role is to introduce methodologies, practices, and systems of control to decrease the likelihood of workers being exposed to hazardous materials.

They also have the necessary qualifications to suggest the use of particular chemicals in hazard containment. Industrial hygienists can suggest work practice controls if they deem it necessary. Work practice controls refer to alterations to procedures within the workplace for the specific purpose of negating chances of workers sustaining injuries or falling sick due to exposure to chemical and physical hazards.

If personal protective equipment (PPE) is required in order for workers to enter a specific work environment, an industrial hygienist with a strong background in health and safety will be on-site in order to determine what kind of equipment will prove most effective. A big part of the job is to assess the workplace in order to determine the risk factors at play.

There are three primary types of hazards that industrial hygienists are looking for. These are physical hazards, biological hazards, and chemical hazards. Physical hazards in the workplace include environmental aspects such as noise, temperature, radiation, electricity, and lighting. Industrial hygienists negate physical hazards in order to make the physical space in which workers must operate safer.

Biological hazards include any dangerous organic materials that can potentially affect the health and wellbeing of workers. This includes pathogenic organisms and viruses. The helpful expertise of industrial hygienists has played a massive role in slowing the spread of COVID-19.

Chemical hazards are harmful chemical substances that workers are exposed to inside the workplace. These can come in the form of airborne toxic gases or impurities in food or water supplies. Industrial hygienists are responsible for preventing these sorts of contaminations.

What Is a Wellness Specialist?

With the certification of a health and safety training course, you can consider a career as a wellness specialist. People in this line of work aim to maintain the health and safety of the workplace on a physiological level. What this means is that wellness specialists are in charge of ensuring that staff members are taking care of their personal wellbeing.

Wellness specialists can offer counsel on how staff can maintain or improve their physical health. If certain employees in the workplace suffer from specific health conditions such as diabetes and obesity, the wellness specialist would offer health and safety training and support to these people in order to prevent their health from deteriorating further. Employees with serious or chronic health conditions should also be able to look towards their wellness specialist to find information on where they can seek effective treatment.

A well-trained wellness specialist should be able to direct employees to the right medical facilities and programmes. Even without a debilitating illness, employees can still seek out general health and fitness advice from their wellness specialists. Wellness specialists can even offer guidance on which medical aid best fits an employeeÕs needs.

Wellness specialists are required to ask employees about their private lives outside of their work environment. This is because wellness specialists also need to make sure that employees are regulating the balance between their work and life effectively. Alongside their health and safety training, wellness specialists should also have exceptional communicative and social skills.

In order to perform this job, one must be regularly checking up on or otherwise interacting with other employees. Since wellness specialists will have to deal with many different employees on a personal level, they must have good multitasking and organisational skills. Wellness specialists should have high social stamina and should have no prejudices surrounding ethnic and economic backgrounds.

Since wellness specialists are essentially tasked with convincing staff to ensure they stay healthy, they should be able to accommodate for when employees are unwilling to follow suggestions. Wellness specialists must have proficiency in problem-solving in order to deal with such issues.

What Is an Environmental Protection Officer?

Being an environmental protection officer is another career option that requires health and safety training. The primary purpose of an environmental protection officer is that of ensuring that oneÕs company stays within the boundaries of the environmental health legislative regulations set in place by local government. Environmental protection officers enforce regulations such as those pertaining to air quality, land contamination, industrial waste emissions, and noise.

Their job is to prevent corporations and companies from severely impacting the wellness of the environments in which they operate. These officers are in charge of conducting the appropriate inspections to determine whether or not their clientÕs operations fall in line with the law. This duty requires environmental protection officers to conduct any necessary investigations and to collect samples.

Environmental protection officers conduct surveys that assist them in acquiring the information required to fulfil the aforementioned duty. If they discover that any aspect of their clientÕs operations is definite or potential legislative misconduct, they must inform management in order to correct the issue. If there is a breach in legal compliance, an environmental protection officerÕs next task is to review what went wrong and subsequently implement policies and measures that prevent the same issues from occurring again in the future.

Just as with other careers requiring health and safety training, environmental protection officers are also tasked with educating fellow employees. They are responsible for ensuring that all employees are aware of the legislative constraints of their work. Environmental protection officers are also in charge of leading investigations into complaints regarding potential breaches of legislated regulations.

They must apply their skills and knowledge to determine whether or not said complaint pertains to a legitimate breach of the appropriate legislature. Lastly, environmental protection officers can often be responsible for much of a company or corporationÕs public face. For instance, they as the onboard technical specialist may have to promote their companyÕs work and dispel public concerns about environmental impact.

Consider Taking a Health and Safety Training Course with Emcare

As an accredited and trusted health and safety training company with multiple educational establishments located throughout South Africa. We can offer you exceptional education and training provided to you by competent instructors. Studying with us guarantees you a bright future in the health and safety industry. The courses we have on offer are accredited by the Department of Labour, Department of Mineral Resources, LGSETA, and HWSETA.