NVQs in Occupational Health and Safety Practice

A City & Guilds National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) provides a qualification that recognises the competence of a person in a work situation. Unlike classroom-based health and safety training that relies on teaching and examinations, a health and safety NVQ uses performance on the job as a basis for assessment.

This flexibility to fit the study around your work activities makes a health and safety NVQ more appealing to many than classroom-based health and safety courses such as a NEBOSH General Certificate, IOSH Managing Safely or 5-day Site Management SMSTS. In particular, many students go down the NVQ Level 5 route instead of a NEBOSH Diploma qualification which involves approximately 35 days of course attendance for the NEBOSH National Diploma, even though the Diploma is a higher level qualification.

Because the NVQ is a health and safety qualification which is work based, and involves the collection of evidence from your normal day to day work activities, candidates must be in a role that allows them to provide this.

We currently offer the following Health and Safety NVQ programmes:

NVQ Level 3 in Occupational Health and Safety Practice

The Level 3 NVQ in Occupational Health and Safety Practice is suitable for those whose role includes the area of general health and safety practice. All such practitioners are involved in risk assessment, the identification of workplace hazards and determining strategies for control. This is a highly practical programme, and one of our team of personal advisors/assessors will assist you to build a portfolio which meets the requirements of City and Guilds for their NVQ Level 3 in Occupational Health and Safety Practice.

NVQ Diploma Level 5 in Occupational Health and Safety Practice

The NVQ Diploma Level 5 in Occupational Health and Safety Practice is specific to people who are actively involved in the practice or management of health and safety as part of their job or role.

Use ELCAS credits towards a Health and Safety NVQ:

For those who have left or are about to leave the services and have Enhanced Learning Credits to use towards health and safety training, both the Level 3 and Level 5 NVQ qualifications qualify for the use of ELCAS funding.

For more information, please call one of the sales team on 0115 984 9940 or contact us online and we can advise you on the procedure for applying and using your credits towards the cost of an NVQ.

Take Your NVQ in Health and Safety With Us!

At ATC Risk Management our NVQ department works with hundreds of NVQ candidates each year to help them achieve the Level 3 or Level 5 National Vocational Qualifications in Occupational Health and Safety. Our numerous NVQ assessors work with individual delegates to assist them with building the required portfolio of evidence and submitting it for assessment through our City & Guilds-approved Learning Assistant ePortfolio system.

There are no specific entry requirements required to start a health and safety NVQ programme, however, as mentioned at the top of the page, candidates must be in a position where they can influence the health and safety policy of their organisation. This is because an NVQ qualification is all about evidence gathering and proving competency, so without being in a suitable job role it will not be possible to gather evidence or prove competency!

You may notice that unlike our open/scheduled health and safety courses, it is not possible to book and pay for an NVQ qualification online. This is because, unlike some other health and safety training providers, our assessors will ensure that you are in a position to be able to gather the required evidence and satisfy the criteria for achieving a National Vocational Qualification before taking a penny from you.

So if you are interested in taking an NVQ qualification with us, please click on either the Level 3 or the Level 5 options above to read more about what each one involves, and fill out and send the pre-registration form using the link at the bottom of the respective page. If you would like to discuss any aspect of the NVQ process with one of our advisers, please call 0115 984 9940 or send us an online contact form by clicking the big blue "Contact Us" button located at the top right of the page.

Relevant Health and Safety NVQ Links:

Article about the NVQ Level 5 health and safety qualification

The City & Guilds NVQ Level 5 in Occupational Health and Safety is one of our most popular health and safety qualifications. Whilst it will take much longer to achieve than attending and successfully passing one of our other qualifications like the NEBOSH General Certificate, the convenience of being able to complete it in your own time and submit evidence over the internet from anywhere in the world makes it an extremely popular choice. This article looks a bit more at the NVQ Level 5 qualification and the difference between this and an e-learning course.

Page about NVQ qualifications and health and safety courses

This article looks at how being eligible to begin an NVQ in Occupational Health and Safety not only relies upon you being in a job role which enables you to collect enough relevant evidence, but also requires a certain degree of knowledge already from previous health and safety training courses so that you understand what to do and look out for whilst completing an NVQ (e.g. the importance of risk assessments and what they are for example).

NVQ Level 5 Health and Safety - No More Paper Portfolios

The old days of using paper portfolios were fraught with dangers. They could get lost in the post, they could be misplaced, they could be damaged by fire or flooding... Combine this with the impracticality and expense of having to carry around bulky portfolios and send documents back and forth through the mail for review, and completing an NVQ back then was a tough process. Thankfully those days are over since improvements in technology enabled online NVQ portfolio submission and management. Multiple secure backups keeps work safe from loss, and the instantaneous and easy submission of work over the internet enables a quicker, cheaper and all round less stressful experience of undertaking and completing a health and safety NVQ.

Why do I need to be in a suitable job role to take the NVQ Level 5 in Health and Safety?

The convenience of not having to attend a taught course makes a health and safety NVQ an attractive option, but of course to collect the required evidence for submission a person needs to be in a suitable job role. As many people desire to attend a health and safety course and achieve an accredited qualification in order to get a new job in the industry, many people may not currently be in a position to gather such evidence from their current employer (if they have one). In this situation, an entirely taught course such as the NEBOSH National General Certificate may be a better option as all of the information required for the assessments is taught during the course.