With around 100,000 employees gaining an IOSH qualification each year, we at ESS thought it’d be a great opportunity to take a look at the accreditation; what it is, the courses we can offer you and how this can help enhance your current job role, or even get you CSCS approved with a green labourer’s card. But first up, let’s get the basics out of the way…

What does IOSH stand for?

IOSH stands for the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. Based in the UK, IOSH is the largest membership organisation for health and safety professionals around the globe. Aiming to create workplaces which are safer, healthier and more sustainable, IOSH has a simple vision: a safe and healthy world of work.

Is IOSH a professionally recognised qualification?

IOSH is a globally recognised, respected and certificated awarding body, delivering peace of mind from training that’s quality controlled to uphold health and safety standards. Having been awarded the royal charter in 2002, IOSH is the only chartered body for health and safety and sets the standard for the profession, supporting members development and guidance.

As a chartered body, IOSH can award different levels of Chartered Safety and Health Practitioner status to learners and qualification holders. For more information on membership levels and entry requirements, visit the IOSH website.

What is IOSH training?

IOSH training courses specialise in helping people at every level, in all sectors, stay healthy and safe at work. As IOSH training combines theory and practical training, the qualification allows the holder to ensure health and safety best practice is upheld, effective and well managed within their organisation. 

We at ESS can offer you four types of training tailored to your business:

• IOSH Working Safely
• IOSH Leading Safely
• IOSH Managing Safely
• IOSH Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing

In order to gain a basic understanding of who needs what within your organisation, we’ve broken it down for you.

IOSH for managers and key decision makers

Every manager needs to understand their safety and health responsibilities!

Tailored to managers and key decision makers who are responsible for the business culture and the planning and implementation of business strategies; ESS are pleased to offer the following IOSH courses;

IOSH Leading Safely

With huge benefits to branding, corporate reputation, productivity and results, health and safety is integral to many of today’s successful companies. This IOSH Leading Safely course provides anyone with leadership responsibilities the practical knowledge and solutions for a sustainable business through good health and safety practice.

IOSH Leading Safely course content covers:

• Safety and health and what it means for different leadership roles
• The responsibilities and behaviours of a leader
• What effective safety and health leadership looks like
• How to get things right
• How leaders can make improvements
• The benefits of effective safety and health leadership

IOSH Managing Safely

An internationally recognised 3-day course for managers and supervisors, IOSH Managing Safely is IOSH’s flagship course. This course will provide you with the confidence to implement good health and safety practises within your teams as well as drive the health and safety culture of your entire organisation.

IOSH Managing Safely course content covers:

• Assessing risks
• Controlling risks
• Understanding responsibilities
• Understanding hazards
• Investigating incidents
• Measuring performance

IOSH Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing

For managers and supervisors within any organisation, this course provides practical advice and techniques to help support the improvement of the health and wellbeing of employees within your organisation.

IOSH Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing course content covers:

• A healthy company and why it makes good business sense to manage workplace health and wellbeing
• Health risk management
• Fitness for work and the importance of managing the fluctuations in people’s health status
• How the promotion of a wellbeing programme can influence and add value to an organisation

IOSH Working Safely – for all levels

Core safety and health training aimed at all employees within an organisation. This 1 day IOSH Working Safely course content teaches the essentials of health and safety, including hazards, risks and technical content to help people operate considerately whilst at work. This will boost not only business performance, but also staff motivation. At the end of the course, each successful learner will receive an IOSH Working Safely certificate which would really allow for a morale boost amongst the teams.

IOSH Working Safely course content covers:

• An outline of occupational safety and health
• Defining hazard and risk
• Identifying common hazards
• Improving safety performance

IOSH Working Safely to get your CSCS Green Card

This classroom based IOSH Working Safely course is also recognised by CSCS as an alternative qualification to the Level 1 Award in Health and Safety in a Construction Environment. This means, that on successful completion of this Working Safely course, (and with a valid CITB Health, Safety and Environment Operatives Test) learners can apply for a CSCS green labourer card. For more information on how to apply for your green card, visit the CSCS website here.

How long is IOSH valid for?

All of these IOSH training courses hold no expiry date, however, it is recommended by the awarding organisation that refresher courses be taken every three years in order to uphold up-to-date industry standards.

Book an IOSH course

For more information on which course is right for you or your teams, or to book one of our IOSH courses, speak to our friendly training advisors on 0115 8970 529.

Essential Site Skills offer a wide range of training, from short courses, through to NVQs and apprenticeships. If you are interested in any of our other courses please visit our homepage to use our handy search function, or visit our course index page to view the full range of qualifications we deliver.