College courses can increase confidence

Oct 23 2007 by Steve Race, Evening Gazette

YOU don’t have to be a health and safety manager or working in heavy industry to benefit from gaining the NEBOSH Level 3 General Certificate. Here is an example of how one person used her office role and interest in health and safety to gain her qualifications with the support of her employer.

Emma Whitworth works as a project support manager for Tees Valley Condition Management Programme (CMP) and is employed by Hartlepool Primary Care Trust. In the past year she has completed her CIEH Level 2 Award in Health and Safety in the Workplace and the NEBOSH Level 3 General Certificate with Middlesbrough College.

She gained a Distinction for the NEBOSH programme and subsequently has been awarded NEBOSH Certificate student of the year for Middlesbrough College.

Tees Valley CMP is a partnership between the Department of Work and Pensions and the NHS to help people claiming incapacity benefit to understand their condition, manage their symptoms and improve confidence to allow them to return to work.

The programme covers the five primary care trusts in Tees Valley. Emma has worked for Hartlepool PCT for the past three years and joined the CMP team 15 months ago, her previous role assisted with health and safety audits and so when she transferred to this role her line manager, Jayne Robson, was very keen to utilise Emma’s interest in health and safety and encouraged her to carry on with her training.

Jayne says: “Supporting Emma to do the NEBOSH ticked two boxes for me, it was an opportunity to meet the needs of the programme and at the same time fill Emma’s personal development portfolio”.

Emma is the only person in the CMP Team to have the NEBOSH qualification and is now carrying out risk assessments and sits on the Health and Safety Working Group for Hartlepool and North Tees PCT’s.

Emma says: “The courses have allowed me to pursue my interests, increased my confidence in a work related environment and have enabled me to help colleagues with their health and safety training. I would recommend the courses to anyone wishing to progress their career in this field, it has been a very positive experience.”