Case Studies

Six years on, with the number of NEBOSH National General Certificate successful students now exceeding 150,000, we asked David what becoming our 100,000th candidate meant to him. Typically with good humour, David played the whole thing down.

“It meant the guy who was sitting next to me, who was called Perry, wasn’t it and the bloke who was sitting the other side called Jackson wasn’t it either, but me, the one in between, I was number 100,000!”

Far more significant for David was achieving the qualification and then the help it gave him in his day to day role. As a Station Officer in Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service in 2006, David led a team of seven officers. They carried out fire inspections of premises that fell under the various fire regulations of the time. It was Hampshire that took a lead role in the move away from fire certificates towards a more risk-based regime, which ultimately led to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order.

David began his career as a fireman in 1990, moved in to a fire safety role six years later and became a fire inspector. He took his NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety for a very specific reason - to give him credibility in court. As a fire inspector, David would be regularly involved in the prosecution of businesses that had breached regulations.

“It gives a lot of substance to fire inspectors to have a NEBOSH National General Certificate,” explained David. “It is a very well recognised qualification, one that’s not easy to achieve. Because of this qualification, as well as my experience, my expertise has never been challenged, it has just been accepted that I am an expert witness.”

David enjoyed other benefits as a result of passing his NEBOSH National General Certificate. “Fire inspectors often take on health and safety responsibilities to ensure compliance with confined space, working at height and so on,” he added. ”So the General Certificate came in really useful there, to do the kind of dynamic and analytical risk assessments we use.”

David retired last year, then immediately “re-engaged” in the same role, but as a specialist inspecting top tier COMAH sites, particularly oil and gas. It’s no surprise then that he recently enrolled to take the NEBOSH International Technical Certificate in Oil and Gas Operational Safety. He has his sights set on a possible career as a fire risk assessment and general health and safety consultant in the oil and gas industry.

We wish David every success and hope he finds his latest NEBOSH qualification just as useful as his first.