Careers in Project, Risk and Safety Management at Level 6
Occupational health and safety management, from law and policy to culture and incident investigation, for practitioners ready to lead the function.
The fieldWhere degree-level work sits
Health and safety is a profession with a clear qualifications ladder, defined less by law than by the membership grades of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health and by the expectations of insurers and large clients. A Level 3 certificate opens the door to advisory roles; a Level 6 qualification is the customary threshold for graduate membership and for the practitioner and manager grades in which someone owns the safety management system rather than administering it. All three diplomas in this field sit at that threshold, and they are among the few awards on this site that a professional body recognises directly for a membership grade, subject to its own current rules.
Roles that ordinarily ask for study at this level
- Health and safety manager or lead practitioner responsible for an organisation's safety management system, policy and assurance
- Health and safety adviser or consultant working across several sites or clients, auditing and advising
- Safety, health and environment manager in construction, manufacturing, logistics, facilities or energy
- Risk manager or compliance manager where occupational safety sits alongside business continuity and insurance
- Incident investigation lead or safety culture specialist in a large organisation
- Health and safety trainer or competence lead building capability across a workforce
The diplomaWhat Level 6 adds
For an adviser with a Level 3 certificate and some years of practice, a Level 6 diploma is the difference between applying a system and designing one. The units across the three programmes cover the law and its regulators, the principles of safety management and policy, risk assessment and control, incident and emergency management, the promotion of a positive culture and, in the Qualifi Health and Safety Management diploma, the development of the practitioner as a professional. The assignments are written about the learner's own organisation, and are frequently the first time anyone has asked them to justify their safety strategy on paper.
The three programmes differ in size and in emphasis and should not be treated as interchangeable. The OTHM Occupational Health and Safety diploma requires a prior Level 3 safety certificate or equivalent for entry and its published specification should be consulted for its credit value and units. The Qualifi Health and Safety Management diploma is a 120-credit award with six units, the broadest of the three. The Qualifi Occupational Health and Safety Management diploma is a 45-credit award with four units, a faster route for someone who wants the Level 6 standing without the full volume. The size difference matters for any later top-up application.
ProgrammesThe diplomas on this site in this field
- Level 6 Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety
- Level 6 Diploma in Health and Safety Management
- Level 6 Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Management
Telling them apart
| Diploma | Units | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety (OTHM) | See spec. | See spec. |
| Diploma in Health and Safety Management (Qualifi) | 6 | 120 |
| Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Management (Qualifi) | 4 | 45 |
Unit titles for each are on the programme pages. A useful test: read the six or so unit titles and ask which set you would be glad to have written five thousand words about.
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