NEBOSH Helped Me Find the Dream Job I’d Never Heard Of
Case Study: Victoria Casey - Aviva
Around 14 years ago, Vicky Casey didn’t know the first thing about the role she performs now. In fact, she didn’t know her kind of job even existed. But now she describes what she does as ‘her dream’ and says NEBOSH was invaluable in helping her find it.
Vicky is a Risk Consultant for one of the UK’s largest insurers, Aviva. In many ways her role is similar to that of a health and safety consultant, but there are other aspects which actually go beyond that.
“I also look at fire risk management, security and business continuity. I carry out surveys to provide my colleagues in underwriting with a better understanding of the risks they are providing cover for,” she explained. “Obviously Aviva wants the organisations they insure to be well managed, so we try to ensure best practice and risk management procedures are being followed. I really enjoy engaging with customers and encouraging them to reduce their risks and exposures.”
When Vicky left school she didn’t know what she wanted to do. She took a college course in leisure and tourism and found it wasn’t for her at all. For a while she worked in retail, but didn’t enjoy that either. Instead she turned to office work and secured a role at the Risk Management division of Aviva.
“My role at first was to support the risk consultants by booking appointments and so on for them. I then became involved in things like technical bulletins and other knowledge support, which to be honest got me really interested in risk management. I used to look at the risk management consultants and think - I would really love to do that one day.”
Vicky self-funded a Foundation Degree in Business and Management, which showed Aviva how serious she was about advancing her career. After she passed with distinction they then put her on a course leading to a NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety. Because several NEBOSH Certificate level qualifications have common units, Vicky quickly took her NEBOSH National Certificate in Fire Safety and Risk Management as well. Doing this within five years meant she didn’t need to sit the first part of the exam (NGC1) again.
Fast forward to now and Vicky is planning her next steps. She is keen to become CMIOSH accredited, which means she is looking at taking her NEBOSH National Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety.
“This is my absolute dream job and I couldn’t be happier,” she told us. “I feel like I uncover something new every day and the learning never actually stops, which is something I really do love. It’s a job I would never have got without my NEBOSH qualifications, and personally I believe it’s a job that couldn’t be done without them.
“Not only did my General Certificate and Fire Certificate fill in so many blanks as far as my knowledge was concerned, the qualifications gave me so much confidence and helped me, and still do help me almost every day, to demonstrate my competence. Now I’m really looking forward to taking things to the next level.”