Safety Officer Course: Understanding The Role Of Safety Officers

Today a safety officer course is among the most desirable practical certifications. This is because the role of the safety officer has become an essential part of any legitimate organisation, company or business’s staff makeup. The safety officer is involved in and responsible for the general health and safety of other employees in the workplace.

Depending on how big a company you work for, your company may hire a whole safety team—the current South African guidelines point to having one safety officer for every fifty employees. Because of these requirements, the safety officer course has grown in popularity recently.

At EMCARE, we offer the country's most comprehensive safety officer course. If you read this, consider doing the course yourself. In this article, we want to clarify better what a safety officer is, why the safety course is so important and the core competencies of a practising safety officer.

What Is A Safety Officer?

Before we can further understand the importance of the safety officer and why obtaining a safety officer course certification is so important, we should start at the very beginning. Let us first define what a safety officer is, their role in an organisation set up and what key skills are required to be an excellent safety officer.

• Definition And Primary Responsibilities
  
  The term safety officer is interchangeable with occupational health and safety officer or even occupational safety agent. However, to avoid confusion, we will refer to the position of a safety officer for this article.
  
  A good definition of the position is: “ A safety officer is a key role in any work environment. They provide safety management, advice, monitoring and reporting in the workplace.”
  
  Although the above definition covers their primary responsibilities, safety officers should promote a safer work environment. Also, the safety officer course should only be the foundation. Safety officers should also read up on the latest workplace safety trends.
  
  
• Key Skills Required
  
  One thing a course can’t teach you, but that will be critical to getting hired, is the implicit skills it takes to be a good safety officer. Many times when interviewing for the position, you will have to show that not only do you have a safety officer course qualification but also prove that you possess the following skills are qualities:
  
  
• Knowledge Of Safety Regulations: Although you will learn the basics in your safety officer course, you are expected to keep up to date with any changes made on a legislative level.
  
  
• Communication Skills: Communication is critical because you must train and liaise with staff and employers.
  
  
• Leadership Skills: Leading a group of people is essential. Not only when training or implementing new operating procedures but vitally when an emergency arises, as you will be the primary person in charge.
  
  
• Attention to Detail: Danger or threats to employees’ safety can arise from a seemingly insignificant factor that may snowball into a larger, more hazardous situation. A safety officer must have close attention to detail skills to avoid overlooking important safety elements.

The Importance Of Safety Officer Courses

Now that we better understand what safety officer is, their primary responsibilities, and the critical skills they should possess to perform their duties responsibly, it is also clearer why the safety officer course is so important. Because safety officer is responsible for the safety of others, they need to be well-trained. And they can’t receive better training in South Africa than with the EMCARE safety officer course. Let us review in more detail what our course offers.

• Overview Of The Safety Officer Course
  
  The EMCARE course is specifically designed to train officers that can assist companies in improving safety in the workplace and comply with South African safety legislation. The system includes the following modules that are completed over two weeks:
  
  
  • First Aid Level 1, with levels 2 and 3 combined
  • Basic Fire Fighting
  • A course on legal liability
  • How to be a SHE (Safety, Health, Environment) representative
  • How to perform a RISK assessment
  • Accident Investigation
  • Emergency evacuation situations
  • How to handle hazardous materials
  
  Upon completion, you will receive your safety officer course qualification and an OHS (Occupational Health and Safety) supervisor certificate.
  
  
• Benefits Of The EMCARE Course
  
  Just from reviewing the safety officer course, you can already see the value of completing this course. Giving you a wide range of knowledge will make you an effective safety officer. But the EMCARE course is beneficial for a host of other reasons as well.
  
  Many South Africans train with our EMCARE team because we have built a good relationship with several government safety agencies and departments as a training facility. This gives us large credibility in the field. For a list of all these, head to our “About Us” section on our webpage.
  
  Another amazing benefit is that we can offer our safety officer course online, which means we can reach people who cannot attend our branches for certification. However, you will first need to provide our trainers at EMCARE with a few valid safety qualifications. These qualifications generally need a practical element and are impossible to do online.

Core Competencies Of Safety Officers

Finally, before the end of this article, let us quickly review the core competencies expected of our EMCARE trainees after they have completed one of our safety officer course programmes.

• Risk Assessment And Hazard Identification: The most important aspect of any safety officer’s job is the ability to perform a comprehensive risk assessment when working at a new site. They should be able to identify potential hazards and then create methods to overcome or eliminate them.
  
  
• Development Of Safety Policies: To promote a culture of safety in the workplace, it is crucial that a safety officer can draw up and design safety policies, also referred to as Safety SOPs (standard operating procedures), that delineate to other employees how to handle potentially threatening situations.
  
  
• Emergency Response: Depending on your industry, you may be subject to various emergencies. You are expected to take charge and respond to emergencies promptly and responsibly in those situations.
  
  
• Training: You are also expected as a safety officer to be able to train other employees on important safety measures and new procedures put in place to protect staff better. Because of this, the job necessitates that you can communicate clearly and be able to speak publicly.

EMCARE’s Premium Service

In this article, we better define what a safety officer is. We also looked at the critical nature of safety officer courses and what core competencies you should exhibit after training with us at EMCARE. The benefits of this course, especially through our premium team at EMCARE, speak for themselves and will provide our trainees with the best practice in the South African market. So don’t hesitate to visit our site today and book your safety course today.