How to Become a Health and Safety Instructor

Are you considering becoming a health and safety trainer? If yes, then I will give you an overview of the benefits of being one.

A Health and Safety Trainer is someone who trains others on how to be safe in their work environment. A lot of people are not aware that there is such a thing as a health and safety trainer so they may not know what it entails or why they should become one. There are many benefits to being a health and safety instructor. For starters, there is the sense of accomplishment that comes from helping people learn how to be safe in their everyday lives. You also get the opportunity to make your own hours which is nice for those who have other commitments outside of work.

Health and safety is one of those sectors that will apply to any industry. Regardless of your background or work experience, you will have to deal with health and safety. The only way of avoiding it is to break the law, this is something I do not recommend.

Experience of a Health and Safety Instructor

In regard to experience, as long as you can evidence you are working in a health and safety role, then you can easily show evidence of CPD. Health and Safety is not just for those that worked in Construction, but it helps.

My background working in Security ensured I was responsible for implementing health and safety procedures within the workplace, gaining the necessary competence to teach others.

So do you need Health and Safety qualifications? Yes you do. You typically need at least a Level 3 qualification in health and safety to teach it. The most worthwhile qualification to gain to teach Health and Safety is the NEBOSH General Certificate which is a short course but covers a great depth of knowledge. This will qualify you for most health and safety roles in the UK but from a teaching perspective, will allow you to teach other relevant health and safety qualifications including Fire Safety, COSHH, Manual Handling, Risk Assessment to name a few. If you have a background in construction, you would be able to teach CSCS courses as well.

Which teaching or assessing qualifications do you need?

Now what about teaching qualifications? Is it the Level 3 Award in Education and Training (AET) or the Level 3 Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement (CAVA)? The Health and Safety suite of qualifications requirement the Level 3 Award in Education and Training (AET) so you’d be good with this one or the Level 4 Certificate in Education and Training (CET). The general rule of thumb is that if the qualification is assessed by an exam, then it’s the teaching qualification.

The major question learners often ask is which level teaching qualification to get. And the answer is varied, if you want to teach a Level 5 or 6 Health and Safety qualification then your advised to get the Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training, but personally if you are new to it or still not sure, why don’t you just take an introduction to teaching with our Level 3 Award in Education and Training.

You need to complete your Health and Safety Assessor Training, but it's a long process. The Education and Training Academy will help you get through the training quickly and easily with our courses. Our course is designed by professionals who have years of experience in the industry. Sign up for our free trial now to see if this is right for you!