IOSH membership – how to move up the ladder

IOSH sets out the benefits of moving up through the membership grades.

Why climb the ladder?

You’ve already taken a significant step in developing your career by joining IOSH, the Chartered professional body for occupational safety and health (OSH). Hopefully you’ll have gained a lot in terms of your knowledge, skills and experience, sharing ideas and practice with your fellow professionals. 

Now you may be setting your sights higher and considering how to progress through the different membership levels towards Chartered Member status. 

 Moving up through the membership grades provides several benefits:

It provides a structured path for progression. IOSH’s online continuing professional development (CPD) platform has a self-assessment tool that enables you to target areas for improvement.
Upgrading your membership at key milestones (e.g. completion of an accredited qualification) gives you new post-nominals that allow you to demonstrate your competence.
It improves your employability and helps you stand out in the competitive jobs market when you apply for new roles.

Qualifications or experience?

In our article An overview of IOSH Membership, we outlined the different member grades and their requirements. Other than Student and Affiliate membership, all member grades require a combination of qualifications and experience.

IOSH’s membership structure broadly reflects the different stages of a professional journey through an OSH career. IOSH provides different ways for people to progress through its membership grades: no two professional journeys are the same. Some may have joined IOSH as Student Members while they were still studying for their qualifications, deciding to move up the grades on completion of their studies. Others have decided to join later at a higher level, once they have gained their qualification. 

People with a certificate-level qualification and Technical membership may undertake a higher-level qualification at a later stage to help them reach Certified membership.

IOSH understands very clearly that qualifications are only part of the story. There are many people in industry who have been working in OSH or OSH-related fields without formal OSH qualifications. Sometimes these have been at very senior and influential roles.

IOSH’s experiential route recognises such established leaders in the profession. They can attain Certified or Chartered status without having to complete additional qualifications. It allows individuals to use the experience gathered over their career as the means to progress their membership. 

How is CPD involved?

To maintain their membership status and to continue using their post-nominals, members in all grades at Technical level or above must carry out at least 30 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) activity a year and record it in IOSH’s CPD platform, Blueprint. For Student and Affiliate members, CPD is optional. 

Believe it or not, CPD links all the way back to IOSH’s Royal Charter. One of the responsibilities of a professional body is to oversee the standards, conduct and skills of the profession. The world of OSH is constantly changing, so it is crucial that professionals keep up with relevant legislation, new ways of working and emerging risks. When members maintain their CPD, they are proving to IOSH – and to their peers and employers – that they are updating their knowledge and their competence as professionals.

Members can select from IOSH’s library of over 1,300 e-learning resources or add their own activities such as:
1.    attending webinars or conferences
2.    undertaking formal training
3.    reading IOSH magazine
4.    taking part in an insightful mentoring session
5.    reading a research article.

Mentoring and more

IOSH members are known for their willingness to 'give back' to the profession, and hundreds are signed up to the IOSH Mentoring platform. This enables experienced OSH professionals to mentor less-experienced members and help them achieve their goals. Mentees can set up a profile and select the areas in which they would like support, for example using Blueprint or undertaking the PDA route to Chartered Membership.

Once you have achieved your own membership goals, don’t forget to extend the ladder back down to support the new cohorts of Student and Affiliate members!