IOSH Managing Safely or Working Safely?

IOSH courses are popular with employers well beyond construction: factories, warehouses, workshops, distribution centres, councils and offices all use them. The two you'll see most are Managing Safely and Working Safely. The names give a strong clue, but it's worth being clear about who each one is for before you book a team on the wrong course.

The short answer

• IOSH Managing Safely: three days, for line managers, supervisors and team leaders responsible for their team's safety.
• IOSH Working Safely: one day, for employees at any level who need a solid grounding in health and safety.

If the person tells other people what to do and how to do it, Managing Safely. If they need to look after themselves and the people around them, Working Safely.

IOSH Managing Safely

IOSH describes Managing Safely as a course for line managers and team leaders who are responsible for their teams' day-to-day safety, in organisations of any size and sector. No previous safety experience is needed. It runs over three days and has six modules:

1. assessing risks
2. controlling risks
3. understanding responsibilities
4. understanding hazards
5. investigating incidents
6. measuring performance

It's practical rather than legalistic: the focus is on what a manager does on a Monday morning to keep their team safe, how to carry out and act on a risk assessment, and what to do when something goes wrong. There's an assessment at the end of the course, and successful delegates receive an IOSH Managing Safely certificate.

IOSH says the certificate doesn't expire, but it recommends a refresher to keep up with best practice and changes in the law. Many employers build that into their own training cycle.

IOSH Working Safely

Working Safely is a one-day course for employees in any sector and at any level, again with no previous experience needed. IOSH lists five topics:

1. introducing working safely
2. defining hazards and risks
3. identifying common hazards
4. improving safety performance
5. protecting the environment

It gives people a shared language for hazards and risks, shows them how to spot problems and report them, and explains why their own behaviour matters. Successful delegates receive an IOSH Working Safely certificate, which can be checked online.

Side by side

Where IOSH fits alongside other courses

On construction sites

IOSH courses aren't construction-specific. If a principal contractor asks a site manager for SMSTS or a supervisor for SSSTS, an IOSH certificate won't take its place. Our guide to SMSTS, NEBOSH or IOSH Managing Safely explains the differences. For new starters on a building site, CITB's one-day Health and Safety Awareness course is the construction equivalent of Working Safely, and it counts towards the CSCS Labourer card.

Wanting a bigger qualification

Managers who want to go further, or who are moving into a health and safety advisor role, often take the NEBOSH General Certificate next.

Training a whole team

A common pattern is Working Safely for the workforce and Managing Safely for the supervisors and managers above them, so everyone shares the same approach to risk. There are two ways to do it:

• Public dates: book people onto our live online dates, spreading them out so you're never short-handed.
• In-house: we run the course for your people only, on dates that suit your shifts, at your site or a venue near your team. This is often simpler when you have a whole shift or department to train. See in-house training.

Questions employers ask

Can a supervisor take Working Safely instead?

They can, but it's the wrong fit. Working Safely teaches people to look after themselves and spot hazards; it doesn't cover assessing and controlling risks for a team, investigating incidents or measuring performance. If someone directs other people's work, Managing Safely is the course written for them.

Does everyone need both?

No. Managing Safely already covers the ground Working Safely does, from a manager's point of view. A manager doesn't need to take Working Safely first, and a team member doesn't need Managing Safely unless they're stepping up to lead others.

How do people join a live online course?

Each delegate joins the video session from a laptop or desktop with a webcam and microphone, and the tutor teaches the group in real time. It isn't a recorded video. Our guide to how live online courses work was written for CITB courses, but the set-up is the same.

Who uses IOSH around South Yorkshire

Many employers across the region aren't in construction at all. Rotherham's Advanced Manufacturing Park at Waverley, the logistics parks around Doncaster such as iPort at Rossington, and the employment sites along the M1 corridor at Barnsley are the kind of workplaces where IOSH courses fit naturally: manufacturing, warehousing and distribution teams with shift supervisors who need practical safety training rather than a construction certificate.

Where to take it

Our IOSH courses run live online with a tutor on fixed dates, so you can join from home, the site office or the works training room. For groups, we can run them in-house. Our pages on health and safety training in Rotherham and courses for Doncaster employers show the next online dates alongside local options.