25
years since first NEBOSH course delivered internationally
In1994,
BSS were the first organisation to deliver a NEBOSH National Certificate
outside of the UK.
25 years ago, British Safety Services
(BSS) gained approval to deliver the first NEBOSH National General Certificate
outside of the UK, in Borneo to the oil and gas industry. NEBOSH at the time only employed only 5
staff. BSS Founder Pat McLoughlin said,
“It took some persuading in 1994 for the NEBOSH management to agree we could
deliver courses overseas. We could see a
demand and were delighted when they agreed.
To think that now international training accounts for around 75% of
NEBOSH’s income.”
The course in Borneo had 20 students of
which 19 paid for their own training (which was equivalent to about 2-3 months’
salary at that time). Once word got out that the course was happening,
the reception area of the hotel became like a recruitment fair as several
employers were keen to recruit the students, such was the value they placed on
the NEBOSH course at that time. All but three of the students gained new
employers and had doubled their salary by the end of the course.
Delivering NEBOSH training courses
internationally in 1994 was so different than today; results were sent back to
NEBOSH via fax and trainers had to take several hundred plastic acetates in
their hand luggage with words, pictures and diagrams to use as presentation
materials.
BSS have managed to track some of participants
of that first international course, and as Mina Bian one of the original
students said: “Back in 1994 I was an occupational nurse with Shell in
Sarawak. I was always
seeing the results of poor health and safety performance on workers at Shell
and when the opportunity came along for me to attend the NEBOSH National
General certificate, I thought it would complement my existing medical
training. During the course I found out so
many new things and, more importantly, it helped me understand how many
accidents and incidents were caused. Little did I
know or appreciate that, due to my success in the NGC I would be selected for
special additional development by Shell and latterly, after 3 rounds of
redundancies, I would be the last to leave the Shell Medical and Health
Department when it was finally reorganised and outsourced. I am certain that the reason for my
extra personal development and being retained until the closure of the
department was greatly influenced by the NGC that I sat over 25 years ago”.
Leaving
Borneo, the BSS team immediately flew to the Sultanate of Oman to deliver the
second NEBOSH National General Certificate course outside of the UK. BSS were keen to build on their reputation in
the region as a leading provider of Health and Safety accredited training
courses.
So
how was the world of safety and training back in 1994?
Training
back in 1994 was so different from today as Pat explains, “there was no internet or emails back
then registration forms and results were all sent by fax and course materials
had to be planned weeks in advance, with little ability to change content
quickly. We had no laptops or projectors
and frequently carried excessive hand luggage, (we could not risk losing our
training materials). Several hundred
acetates with words and diagrams together with hundreds of 35mm photographic slides
demonstrating good or bad practice had to accompany us wherever we delivered
our training. Occasionally clients would agree to produce corporate safety
videos which cost thousands of pounds and weeks to produce.
It
is so much easier these days, we can adapt content quickly and capture videos,
interviews or photos easily. We present
training material using lightweight laptops (which can all be backed up and
stored in the cloud should we ever lose our devices whilst abroad).
Other than technology, so much has
changed in the areas of risk management since 1994 and this includes the phrase
risk assessment itself, as it is now a daily used word in society, a far cry
from the early days when only those in the health and safety world vaguely
understood the concept.
Today, we realise and accept that at the
heart of good health and safety practice is people and their behaviour. To
ensure a positive safe working environment requires people to have a positive
attitude to safety and not, as promoted by some countries still, a never-ending
list of rules, laws and punishment for violators.
Additionally, we have seen significant
improvements in the last 25 years to personal protective equipment in the
range, quality and its use. PPE,
although not the perfect solution, has a relevant time and place”.
How
do you see the future of safety and training?
“There are some new exciting
developments which will help us assess improvements before and after training. We
have recently been privileged to use the Safety Climate Tool, SCT, a wonderful
survey tool from the UK Government Regulators, the Health and Safety Executive,
HSE, which helps to reveal people’s attitudes and reasons for their behaviour,
both good and not so good. We have used this survey with clients, one with over
4,800 workers on one site. Individuals
take part in the survey, prior to training and enables employers and trainers
to get a “feel” for safety attitudes within the workforce, both individually
and collectively. We can create a sensible list of suggested actions and
priorities to be carried out post training.
This benchmarking process is repeatable
and objective, it allows real measurement of change, without relying on the
good old, and highly discredited, AFR, Accident Frequency Rate as the sole
arbiter of safety performance!
With the ability to follow up the survey
at a later date, we are able to help clients assess if attitudes within their
organisation are changing. We would
never have been able to conduct, deliver and evaluate a survey such as this
back in 1994 without today’s technology to help. I think these tools will only
get better in the future and help us develop bespoke training and development
programmes that can continue to make a difference.
One thing that may also change in the
future is the way we provide water to our students. One thing that makes me
smile is that back in 1994 if you had bottled water at a training course it was
always a fancy glass bottle – not the cheap plastic bottles we have seen
latterly. However, now we are aware of
the dangers of plastic to our environment we are seeing a return to glass
bottles – so some things have gone full circle!”
From
becoming the first provider of training courses for NEBOSH outside of the UK, BSS
has grown its international reputation. Having delivered courses on six
continents (as Pat said, “we count Siberia as the Arctic because it certainly
felt like it” and in many Foreign & Commonwealth Office ‘red list’
destinations. Examples of locations
across the continents where BSS have delivered training include Algeria,
Canada, Congo, China, Greece, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Timor
Leste and the UAE. In between collecting
airmiles, BSS have delivered courses in the UK, either on location at clients’
premises or from their own facilities in Birmingham.
BSS have trained over five thousand
students on various NEBOSH courses since 1994. Many students have gone on to
train countless others resulting in saving many injuries and potentially even
deaths as we spread the message that good health and safety management should
be seen as a potential profit centre and not a cost centre, with the financial
savings that can be made by reducing daily carnage in the workplace.
Pat recalls, “one of my proudest
moments was assisting development of the materials and trainers for delivery of
a NEBOSH accredited course in Mandarin. To see the impact that HSE training has
had in China in the last 24 years has been fantastic. Whilst there is still so much to do around
the globe, as safety professionals we should recognise how far we have come.”
And
what about the future?
“We are just back from Borneo after
recently delivering a NEBOSH Process Safety Management Course where we are
delighted to announce all students achieved a 100% pass rate.
This Winter will see us returning to
Papua New Guinea, Oman and China as we deliver the range of NEBOSH courses
internationally. We are really excited
about the new Process Safety Course as this has already been popular with our overseas
clients”.
Any
further thoughts?
We are pleased NEBOSH continue to
develop their training products and now NEBOSH are holders of a Queen’s Export
Award. BSS often wonder would that have
happened without the embryo of an idea to deliver the first ever National
General Certificate in Borneo back in 1994?
British
Safety Services (BSS) is a consultancy offering advice on health and safety
issues nationally and internationally. Based in Birmingham, the company offers
guidance on all aspects of public safety, specialising on workplace
legislation. The company also runs a wide range of recognised training courses
focusing on safety issues.
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