Requirements

Health and safety officer - requirements

As a health and safety officer, you’ll use your organisational skills and eye for detail to maintain safety in the workplace and improve the health of your colleagues. Read on to find out more about what your job could involve and how you can work towards getting a job in this field.

Know what you'll need to land a job below.

What qualifications do you need to be a health and safety officer?

Having a degree related to the sector or industry in which you’ll be working is typical. Subjects that especially lend themselves to health and safety work include:

You can enter the field with a degree-level qualification, but you’ll need to show strong relevant experience and have professional qualifications in health and safety. Many professional courses and accreditations don’t have minimum academic criteria for entry.

Please note this is a beta version. We'll continue to improve our suggestions here so that we show you the most relevant subjects.

Do you need a postgraduate qualification to be a health and safety officer?

Many health and safety degree courses are at a postgraduate level and usually complement a relevant degree to your sector, so they’re valued by employers looking for technical experts with health and safety training.

Relevant postgraduate courses you could consider include:

Safety and risk management
Occupational health and safety management
Occupational health, safety and environmental management
Process safety and loss prevention
Health safety and risk management

What skills do you need to be a health and safety officer?

As well as strong communication and negotiation skills, you’ll need to have a keen eye for detail and an analytical approach to problem-solving.

Hard skills usually include:

Analysing risks
Managing risks
Environmental health
Health and safety laws
Occupational health
Monitoring and reporting
Auditing

Soft skills include:

Written and verbal communication
Investigating
Operations management
Leading others
Influencing and persuading
Eye for detail
Customer focus

Do you need work experience to be a health and safety officer?

Practical experience in the workplace is highly valued by employers and you should ideally get experience in the field you’d like to pursue. You might get this in research activities during your studies or on placement through your degree. A placement or shadowing opportunity in a government health department is also a good way to get started.