It’s good having NEBOSH in your corner
Case Study: Omar Jaouane
The often controversial sport of boxing may seem like an unlikely introduction to the world of health and safety, but Omar Jaouane can see a connection between his emerging health and safety career and his time as an amateur pugilist and coach.
“I guess people tend to only look at the aggressive side of boxing,” said Omar, 30. “But it’s as much, if not more about protecting yourself from harm as it is defeating your opponent. In amateur boxing there’s also a lot of attention paid to things like safety equipment, such as head protection and so on. After boxing at an early age, I went on to get my coaching licence, which of course puts a strong emphasis on keeping others safe as well.
“Personally, I’ve always been focused on finding the best way of doing things and the safest way, and maybe that’s why I ended up working in health and safety?”
When Omar left school at 16, he started a bricklaying apprenticeship, but that didn’t last long. It came just as a severe downturn hit the UK construction industry and he ended up being laid off. Through a friend he found a maintenance job on the railway and began showing an interest in becoming a controller of site safety, a role which protects colleagues from moving trains. He sat the appropriate course and took on responsibility.
“Everything just kind of built from there to be honest and ultimately led to me taking my NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety, which has really changed everything for me,” said Omar.
After working a Health and Safety Advisor for a large UK workforce supplier, Omar applied for a role with health and safety consultancy QSS Group as an Assurance Specialist and has since been promoted to the role of Consultant.
“There’s no way I would have got a foot in the door unless I’d had the NEBOSH Certificate and since then I’ve gone on to take the NEBOSH Environmental Certificate and next will be the Fire Certificate. I’m hoping next year I’ll move on to the NEBOSH Diploma, but right now I’m just wanting to gain more really useful experience working alongside the consultants here and learning more and more every day.
“But I can say I’ve definitely got the NEBOSH bug now. It just opens your eyes to everything. I’ll be honest, before I took my first Certificate I thought I knew a lot. Now I realise just how much I didn’t know and I just want to keep on studying.”
Omar added: “I’m really keen on being a health and safety consultant. I think through my time as a boxing coach I’ve found a passion for mentoring and supporting people and it would be great to do that as part of my health and safety career.
“I want to go on and help others understand the risks in their workplace and help them put the right controls in place. I feel really lucky to have found this role which I love and to have the know-how I’m still gaining from NEBOSH behind me.”