Education Articles

It’s surprising how employable a Health and safety course can make you. Every workplace has a legal requirement to provide qualified Health and Safety personnel, and if it comes down to you and another candidate for a job, the expense saved on that particular piece of training might well nudge the decision in your favour. Of course, it’s a logical thing to have under your belt, too: you never know when you’re going to need it.

There are several areas of safety that you might be interested in studying. Depending on the size and nature of a work place, there are legal requirement in place in Ireland governing first aid, bullying and stress, manual handling and fire safety, so these are perhaps the primary ones to consider. First aid courses are readily available through organizations like the Irish Red Cross - www.redcross.ie or the Order of Malta - www.orderofmalta.ie. Depending on the course, you might spend an afternoon learning the basics of ABC first aid and the recovery position, or you might go into much more depth, qualifying to deal with a wide range of worst-case scenarios. Of course, the longer and stronger the course, the further it’s going to get you in the workplace, though it’s always worth checking the reputation of an institution and its certification, too.

Manual handling is only necessary for jobs in which you’ll regularly be lifting, and teaches how to do so with a minimal risk to yourself and those around you. In fire safety, you’ll quickly learn how to identify the source of a fire, and so respond in an appropriate way, while ergonomics deals with issues relating to how your body is positioned, and how this may cause repetitive strain or joint problems, as well as how best to avoid them.

It’s even possible to train in these areas without leaving your home (or office), with plenty of online courses available in traditional safety issues like chemical awareness, manual handling and food safety as well as more diverse and specialist topics like office ergonomics and bullying. There are a number of good places to go for online options (which, while generally less respected and – inevitably – less practical, do teach the basics well, and are much more affordable), such as Phoenix Safety - www.phoenixsafety.ie or Safety Ireland - www.safetyireland.com.

Many workplaces have more obscure issues to deal with, too, and it’s possible to train (or even bring in a consultant such as Occupational Health and Safety Services - www.ohssireland.com in issues like noise pollution, chemical exposure and even how to build your entire office within the legal restrictions, should you need to.

Health and safety courses have developed largely off the back of legislation requiring companies to comply with regulations, but there’s no reason for individuals or companies not to make use of the necessary qualifications to self promote, push staff to think in a different way, or just to make their workplace a safer place. After all, if something goes wrong, first aid training could literally be a life saver!