Did you learn H&S on the job, or did you go to school for it?
I feel like a lot of the younger safety pros actually went to school for health and safety which I think is really cool. Whereas the older generations probably didn’t have that opportunity available.
I went to school for geology (which is kind of environmental) but almost all of my health and safety knowledge came on the job.
Just wanted to get a poll going for our community. If you did go to school for H&S feel free to drop the year you graduated
Comments (17)
I’m grateful to have a masters in EHS, but my real education happened on the job!! Class of 2003 :)
I have an Associates Degree in Occupational Safety. Knew nothing about it when I decided to pursue it.
I don't recall anything other than Industrial Hygiene being a degree when i went to school, and I'm not sure if Purdue offered an IH program in the early 90's.
It was not my original intention but, yes, I did get a formal EHS education first. My BS is in Microbiology but decided to get my MPH in Industrial Hygiene. I was planning to work in infectious diseases when a grad school professor informed me of IH. I pivoted and never looked back.
I think school gives you a basis and good broad understanding of ESH and opens your eyes the reasoning why standards and regulations are the way they are. But most of the practical knowledge you'll attain is from the experiences you deal with on the job in whatever industry that employer is in. School and OJT are both important and go hand-in-hand - one isn't more important than the other. For most employers though, if you don't have a degree or an advanced degree, your hurdle becomes much more difficult to jump over.
Similar to those below, I went through a degree program for safety. That only gives some base knowledge and the "job requirement" for certain jobs, however. Since then; on the job learning, taking on advanced career positions, and certification courses have given me a much larger knowledge base in a relatively short amount of time.
I learned the books in college obviously, but like most I learn much better hands on. When I started my first safety job I learned more in the 1st week than I ever did in school. My father was the opposite. He was a plant worker for 35 years. The first 20 he was an operator, then moved into safety and took a few college courses.
I have 3 degree in safety and environmental and it did help with some of the knowledge. However, most of my learning has come from on the job experiences, especially in construction environmental. I will say this, my degrees have obtained my interviews I don't believe I would have had without them.
Throughout the years of working in different refineries, with multiple companies, you pick up a ton of knowledge and learn the "Do's and Don'ts". Unfortunately it's been hard to get a transfer to safety or land a job as a safety tech without the certifications needed. I recently obtained my certified safety tech and other certs but now get shot down for not having experience in the safety field...go figure lol
Started learning safety on the job. Then went to school years later.
Initial learning was on the job. Then I got to a point where I had the knowledge to do the job but not the qualifications to be an official Health & Safety person! At this point I went "back to school" to gain the official qualifications