Professional Development
What's everyone doing for PD this year? Have you found anything good (classes, certifications, etc.) that you'd like to share? I'm looking for ideas. Thank you.
Comments (9)
I highly recommend retirement!
I did and the best decision I ever made. I still consult part-part time. I love to talk and if someone wants to pay me great money to so that, Why Not? I buy my toys with it.
A younger friend wants me to join ASSP and get my certification. I frankly do not see the need with 50 years experience in the game, a BA, MS, OSHA Approval to teach Outreach (on my fourth 503 recert), a cert in HR (PHR), and more ISO, Quality, Ops, and Lean training and experience than most.
Speaking as a recruiter for a huge major manufacturing corporation, if I was under 55 I would first make sure I had a BA in something, but for EHS probably in that. In my corporation you will not even get and interview for a Salary Exempt position (basically supervisory level) with out a BA or BS in something. With the degree I will not give your resume even a second look. It goes immediately into the "Thanks But NO Thanks" pile. Is that fair, don't know, but it is the way it is.
Next for EHS most large companies want to see a Cert. I would recommend a CSP to start with. Then consider some of the letters behind Drew Hinton's resume. I really like the ones in Electrical. NFPA, and HazWopper, You may also want training pertaining to your industry. You might want to be a "Component Person" in things like Permit Confined Spaces and Fall Protection. If I was 40 I would become a CIH. I am always fascinated by IH.
OSHA training is very useful. Outreach training as an instructor is a great gig!
If you are in manufacturing training in Lean, ISO, and Quality is very applicable to EHS! Lean applies to everything! Any Quality Management and EHS Management use all the same management tools! If I owned my own huge company EHS would report up through Quality!
My $02
PS I do not need blood pressure medication any longer and my life-long struggle with depression is GONE and DONE!
I usually attend (or speak at) multiple PD conferences each year and get a lot of PD from attending the technical sessions, but I decided to take 2024 off from attending any conferences to focus more on being home with family.
At Arrow Safety, we do quarterly internal PD trainings for our team. Three quarters are done virtually via Google Meet, and the remaining quarter is our in-person, annual "meeting," where we spend 2-3 days on professional development, fun outings, nice company dinners, etc. Each virtual PD day is 4 hours where each of us (4 total) teach on a specified topic for 1 hour, then the annual meeting is 8 hours of PD where we each teach for 2 hours. By the end of the year, each person will have AT LEAST 20 hours of PD just from our own company, plus any external PD they attend/complete. I require all full-time employees (me and 1 other person) to get at least 50 hours of PD per year, and each part-time employee (2 total) to get at least 25 hours of PD per year. However, most of us end up getting double those amounts most years.
I also pay for my employees to attend various OSHA courses at OTIs. One of my employees just completed his CSHO certification over the past year or so (200+ hours of training through OTIs).
Are you looking for PD in any specific topic(s)?
Join your local Chamber of Commerce Safety Council, it s a great way to hear various topics and to connect with other local EHS pros in a myriad of industries.
Most states have a annual Safety Congress, hosted by your states BWC. I have found these Congress events mostly meaningful, as they host a large variety of speakers.
Finishing my MBA, if I can keep up with everything haha