Select accredited health and safety training courses are approved under the Ministry of Defence’s Enhanced Learning Credits Administration Service (ELCAS). This allows service leavers to spend their credits accrued from service on training, with the intention of setting them up for a career.

ACT are an approved centre with ELCAS and over the years we have helped many service leavers navigate the process of the ELCAS system and access high quality training, developing their competence and skills in a whole new area.

Why use your credits on health and safety training?

You may be surprised to hear that health and safety is actually very popular for service leavers and many ex-service personnel are very good at health and safety (trust me, I mark some of the assessments!).

Health and safety as a career is a good blend of problem solving (both planned and on the spot) and structured management of work. It involves a lot of working with people, making cooperative relationships, and constant learning.

Many ex-service personnel excel at risk identification, assessment and control, and can create effective and useful procedures.

What health and safety courses can I get with my ELCAS credits?

As an Approved ELCAS Learning Provider, ACT have successfully applied to have a range of our training courses covered under the scheme and approved for service leavers to take advantage of.

There is set criteria on what can be approved for ELCAS funding, including that: the qualification is at least Level 3, is accredited by an independent body, and provides a good chance at accessing a career. Additionally, we have to maintain a high approval score with ELCAS personnel that take our course. As I write this, we are currently at 88% approval from 105 service leavers using the ELCAS system.

When undertaking a course with ELCAS credits, you only pay 20% of the cost and the ELCAS credits cover the rest.

ELC courses offered by ACT

• NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational health and Safety (Classroom or Self-study e-learning)
• NEBOSH International General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety (Self-study e-learning)
• NEBOSH Environmental Management Certificate (Classroom)
• NEBOSH Health & Safety Management for Construction (Classroom or Self-study e-learning)
• NEBOSH National Diploma for Occupational Health and Safety Professionals
• National Vocational Qualification Level 3 in Occupational Health and Safety (City & Guilds)
• National Vocational Qualification Level 6 in Occupational Health and Safety (City & Guilds)

If you have any questions about the process of accessing training through the ELC system, please contact our course advisors via email actsales@actassociates.co.uk

Where can a career in health and safety take me?

Every single organisation in the UK has a legal duty to manage health and safety, and how they do this is up to them. Larger organisations often employer health and safety advisors/officers/managers who look after health and safety within the workplace. Essentially, a health and safety professional can work anywhere across the UK (or the world) and there are many diverse and interesting workplaces to be a part of.

An understanding of health and safety is needed by all managers and responsibilities for managing health and safety can be found in roles all the way up to director level.

What sort of salary can you access in health and safety?

Health and safety, like many other industries, goes all the way up to director level. Ultimately, directors have a lot of legal responsibilities, so larger organisations will often elect to have a director specifically looking after health and safety.

The starting salary for a health and safety advisor or manager is around £26,000 a year for someone holding a NEBOSH General Certificate. Considering that the NEBOSH General Certificate is a level 3 qualification, equivalent to an A-level, this is a phenomenal starting salary.

How does health and safety translate into other roles?

Health and safety requires problem solving, budget management, relationship management, and contractor management. This makes it very transferrable into management positions. Additionally, all managers have responsibilities to manage health and safety, so having a health and safety qualification can improve your chances at being hired into a management role.