Is the NEBOSH General Certificate Worth It?

There can be no denying that the NEBOSH General Certificate is one of the more challenging health and safety qualifications to pass, primarily due to its scope in terms of the amount of information covered by the course syllabus and the time and dedication needed to study and revise. This additional time is something that many potential candidates forget before they enrol as not only is the teaching time that needs to be accounted for but there is also a significant amount of time required for self-study and revision for the assessments. Those who do not put in this time and effort pretty much always fail at least one of the three assessments that make up the complete NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health qualification and will need to re-sit and re-take it/them. So ultimately many potential candidates will be wondering if the NEBOSH General Certificate is worth the time and effort necessary to achieve it.

The answer to the above question will depend to a large extent upon the circumstances of the individual but in most cases the answer will be a resounding yes. Not only will the NEBOSH General Certificate provide a person with a lot of knowledge about many common dangers in a workplace, but many health and safety jobs and potential employers demand that applicants hold a NEBOSH General Certificate qualification before they will even consider them for the available position.

It is for this reason that many people choose the General Certificate as the first step on the ladder of working in a health and safety role as there are no pre-requisites, although for those with virtually no knowledge of health and safety a lower level course like the IOSH Managing Safely is often a better starting point as it is not as intensive.

So despite being quite an expensive and time-consuming course, achieving a NEBOSH General Certificate is more often than not definitely worth the effort, time and money for those who are serious about a career in a health and safety role.

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