Safety first: a career path worth inspecting

However, the picture varies country by country. Our 2023 Member Survey found that 38 per cent of respondents outside the UK chose OSH as their first career, compared to just 6 per cent in the UK.

So, what is making it so hard in the UK to get into OSH?

What do young people want from work?

Even in 2024, OSH is still facing a reputational issue with young people. Spend a couple of minutes on TikTok and you will likely get served ‘don’t tell health and safety’ videos showing dangerous behaviour among young workers. However, stereotypes about safety professionals aren’t the only barrier to entering the profession.

There have been recent high-profile reports about what young people want from work.¹ Pressing issues include the rising cost of living, mental health, flexible working and the changing climate. While careers with positive impact and ‘green careers’ are in vogue, the reality for most young people is to get a job with a clear route in, that pays well, is flexible, and is not going to make them ill.

Routes into OSH

University remains the top choice for school-leavers, but there are fewer OSH university options compared to other subjects. With 96 per cent of teachers having a degree, many feel more comfortable advising their pupils to attend university.² It is also common for job adverts to ask for vocational qualifications, the majority of which do not receive public funding for 16- to 19-year-olds.³

What about apprenticeships? In England, we are fortunate to have the Level 3 Safety, Health, and Environment Technician Apprenticeship, which has been growing in demand each year. Although there is a modern apprenticeship in Scotland with many providers to choose from, there are few actual vacancies. In Wales and Northern Ireland, there are no pure health and safety apprenticeships.

Meeting early careerists where they are

I might have painted a daunting picture – but there are several ways that both IOSH and its members and volunteers continue to improve the situation.

We are pleased to launch our new careers leaflet, which we are busy disseminating to careers services across the UK and Ireland to promote careers in OSH. In the last year we expanded our reach to careers advisers, writing guest blogs and supporting individual advisers to learn more about the profession.

Careers websites consistently rank among the top three sources of career advice for young people.⁴ We’ve been working with organisations such as Prospects.ac.uk to promote case studies from real OSH professionals like Isobel Humphreys and Shannon Smith.

Retention is just as important

Getting people to choose OSH is only half the battle. Student members often report a lack of entry-level jobs, leading them to consider other fields. Many IOSH future leaders have also shared their pet peeves, including poorly written job adverts that reinforce old stereotypes, ask for a limited qualification and skill set, or don’t list the salary. We still have a long way to go, but we have initiatives in the pipeline to address this gap.

How can I help?

• Tell us your outreach stories. Email me at CareerHub@iosh.com or reach out to me on LinkedIn.
• Get involved. Want to do more outreach but don’t know where to start? Let us know on CareerHub@iosh.com and we can direct you to local organisations or programmes.
• Share our careers leaflet. It's available as a download on this page. We also have a limited print-run of our careers leaflet that we can provide for careers services or events.
• Review your job adverts. Think about if you are accidentally including barriers to young or neurodiverse people in your job adverts.

References

1. https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/issues/work/content/genz-millennialsurvey.html
2. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england
3. https://www.qualifications.education.gov.uk/
4. https://luminate.prospects.ac.uk/early-careers-survey