Safety Officer Course: The Role Of Safety Officers

Are you interested in taking part in a safety officer course? This article will focus on the role of a safety officer, what industries require safety officers and what the EMCARE safety officer course entails. A safety officer course has many benefits and can help people move forward in their careers. These courses are extremely important for many industries. These officers ensure that work environments are as safe as possible.

Safety Officer Course: What Is A Safety Officer?

Safety officers are appointed within workplaces. The people that are appointed for these roles are expected to perform safety duties in their workplace. This person has an important role to ensure that the workspace is safe for everyone working within that space.

There are a few roles and responsibilities of safety officers. These roles can be shared between multiple safety officers, depending on the size of the workspaces. These roles and responsibilities include:

• Safety officers should ensure that the relevant safety and health legislation are always met.
• Safety officers are responsible for improving, developing, and implementing health and safety programmes, procedures, and plans.
• Training staff on safety and health issues that may occur in the workplace.
• Ensure that the workplace has safety equipment and that everything is in good condition.
• They should be able to identify necessary OHS training needs in their workplace.
• Safety officers will be responsible for conducting safety risk assessments and inspections in the workplace.
• It will be necessary for them to investigate any workplace accidents that may occur.
• Report on occupational health and safety (OHS) activities.
• If there are any junior health and safety employees, safety officers will need to supervise them.

This role is usually a full-time job. For someone to be appointed for this role, they need to possess a relevant and formal qualification or take part in an accredited safety officer course.

Safety officers working in the construction industry also need to register with the South African Council for Project and Construction Management Professions in order to work as health and safety Officers. In South Africa, health and safety officers and health and safety representatives work together as a team to ensure the necessary safety regulations in workplaces are met.

What Industries Require Safety Officers?

In many big industries such as construction, mining, and engineering, safety officers are some of the most important employees. Complete your safety officer course through EMCARE to reduce the risks of accidents in different workplaces. Health and safety officers are extremely important in these industries because companies want to avoid their employees from getting injured as well as being held financially responsible if their employees get injured at work.

Besides being held financially responsible, companies also want to avoid damaging their reputation if accidents were to occur at their place of work. If these companies frequently have accidents occur on-site or are seen as negligent, this will negatively affect their business. Construction, mining, and engineering are industries where safety officers commonly work.

At least one person on a construction site needs to take part in a safety officer course. Health and safety officers can be found in large organisations that work within high-risk industries. In organisations that are considered smaller, safety officers may function in more corporate environments and their position may be incorporated with another, such as HR.

Furthermore, the working environment for safety officers will look different depending on which industry they are working in. In a hospital, safety officers will spend their time in the building, working shifts with other safety officers. In a business or corporate environment, safety officers will spend most of their time in an office, on factory floors, and travelling between different business locations. In these environments, they should work typical office hours.

When it comes to working in a mining environment, safety officers will spend most of their time in mines and in an office. These environments are more likely to be dangerous compared to the previous two mentioned.

EMCARE: Take A Course Today

It may not seem like a big deal to do a safety officer course, but at EMCARE we want to show each person that takes part how important and exciting this job can be. We offer many different health and safety courses that can help you further your career in this industry. We ensure that each person that takes part in these courses has been effectively prepared to take on these types of jobs. The first safety officer course we have available is the Health and Safety Induction Course (OHS1/2).

The duration of this course is 4 hours. This course is available for businesses that would like to have all their staff briefed on the basic fundamentals of health and safety in workplace environments. This course provides people with basic information and makes people aware of possible workplace injuries which in turn helps reduce these injuries. At the end of this course, you will receive a certificate that will be valid for two years.

The second safety officer course that can be seen on our website is the Health and Safety Representative Course (OHS3). Participants will also receive a certificate at the end of completing the course and it is also valid for two years.

The duration of the course is one day. On this day, you will learn what a health and safety representative is, the requirements needed and the functions of this job. Our staff will educate participants on the necessary acts, legislation, and knowledge of safety officers.

Another safety officer course that we have available is the OHS Supervisors Course. This course is the management programme which helps equip H&S supervisors, managers, and coordinators with holistic knowledge regarding health and safety. This course is made up of a few courses in one which include SHE representative, OHS supervisor certificate, legal liability, accident/incident investigation, and risk assessment.

These courses can be used by businesses to educate their staff or by individuals who would like to pursue a career in health and safety. Contact EMCARE today to find out more about our courses!