What is IOSH Training and what does IOSH stands for ( Institution of Occupational Safety and Health).
IOSH has over 46000 members in over 120 companies. The organisation is UK based with members around the World.
IOSH is a not-for-profit organisation. IOSH is also the Chartered body for health and safety professionals; aiming to raise standards and regulate the profession. They work to set expectations, establish standardised rules and regulations, and promote good practice through a variety of IOSH training courses.
Training Courses
IOSH training courses are health and safety courses specifically accredited by IOSH.
Suitably qualified and experienced health and safety professionals apply to IOSH to be able to deliver these accredited courses. To be able to deliver these courses the health and safety professions/organisation must demonstrate that they have relevant qualifications, experience and accreditation with IOSH.
Once IOSH are satisfied the professional/organisation has sufficient experience and qualifications to deliver the courses IOSH issues, the professional/organisation with the appropriate certification and training information to be able to deliver the courses to the IOSH standard.
The health and safety professional/organisation must pay IOSH the appropriate fee each year to be able to deliver the IOSH courses. Professionals/organisations who deliver the IOSH accredited courses must register any scheduled courses with IOSH and once delivered IOSH issue the relevant certificates to the provider who then send them on to the successful candidates.
Some companies can write their own courses and pay IOSH a few to accredit these individual courses also.
Accreditation Courses
IOSH accreditation courses have particular kudos within the industry.
IOSH accredited courses help people in all sectors stay healthy and safe at work. They are solely focused around health and safety. The courses have been specially designed and developed to equip students with tools to carry with them to ensure their place of work is a safer environment, with reduced absenteeism and increased productivity.
Specifically, IOSH training aims to guide students in how to identify hazards posed in the workplace, how to define and assess various risks, and how to boost adherence to health and safety policies amongst their fellow workers.
IOSH training is assessed with practical and written assessments, thoroughly testing the knowledge the students have gained through the course. The format of teaching is geared to boost engagement, combining traditional classroom learning and interactive activities.
Every year, 100,000 people successfully pass their IOSH training and gain a qualification. Such courses include IOSH Working Safely and IOSH Managing Safely. These can be taught either by e-learning, in the classroom or in the working environment.
Working Safely
The IOSH Working Safely course is split into interactive modules:
- An introduction to working safely; the principles of why working safely is important.
- Defining hazard and risk; recognising risks in the workplace and understanding the application of risk assessments.
- Identifying common hazards; understanding how hazards arise and how to prevent them. A hazard spotting exercise is included to practise this essential health & safety skill.
- Improving safety performance; understanding how systems and processes can be put in place to improve safety performance and how these relate to all levels of the workforce.
- Protecting our environment; how organisations and individuals can
An assessment is then undertaken. The assessment cannot be attempted until all the course modules have been worked through. The assessment questions are randomly taken from a large question bank provided by IOSH.
If the assessment is re-sat, different questions will be asked. The assessment must be completed in one sitting and cannot be re-visited or re-started. IOSH also states that the assessment should be treated as a closed book exam.
There are two parts to the assessment:
A knowledge and comprehension assessment which consists of 16 questions in a variety of formats; and
An application of learning, where learners are required to complete a hazard-spotting exercise, that consists of four exercises.
There is a time limit of 30 minutes for the assessment.
To attain the IOSH Working Safely Certificate an overall passmark of 30 out of 49 is required with a minimum score requirement for the individual modules of 20 out of 33 for the knowledge and comprehension assessment and 10 out of 16 for the application of learning.
Successful candidates will receive 6 CPD credits.
The certificate has no expiry date but IOSH recommends that the course and assessment are re-done after three years.
Managing Safely
The IOSH Managing Safely course provides a superb grounding to anyone who works in any industry, who wants to learn the basics of health and safety.
Attending this course will candidates improve the safety awareness culture in their organisation, see your productivity increase and enhance your reputation within your supply chain, embedding safety and health across the whole organisation.
This course is designed for line managers or anyone who requires a broad-based knowledge of health and safety and safe systems of work, in any sector, worldwide.
The course covers:
- Assessing risks
- Controlling risks
- Understanding responsibilities
- Understanding hazards
- Investigating incidents
- Measuring performance
The assessment is designed to evaluate delegates’ understanding of basic health and safety. The assessment includes a 45-minute written paper consisting of 20 multi-format questions, plus a practical risk assessment project.
Successful delegates receive a nationally-recognised IOSH Managing Safely certificate.
The certificate has no expiry date but IOSH recommends that the course and assessment are re-done after three years.
Finding An IOSH Accredited Training Provider
Wurkplace Limited is an IOSH accredited training provider in both IOSH Working Safely and IOSH Managing Safely. If you would like to find out more about this then feel free to contact us using the methods below.
As a Managing Director at Wurkplace since May 2010, Karen has extensive HR, employment law and health and Safety experience from working within the private sector.
She also boasts experience of working in the public sector including local authority, fire service, police, schools, colleges, charities, NHS.