Mohamed Ali

“I spent a lot of time with the health and safety department on accidents and incidents and I had to manage people,” says Mohamed. “But I thought to myself, maybe health and safety might be the area for me: instead of dealing with the incidents, I can actually get there before it happens and hopefully manage it.” Round about the time he was mulling this over, an encounter helped him to take this change of direction.

“One of the managers introduced me to Carlos Griffiths who worked at the HS2 project. He said to me, ‘would you like to do an apprenticeship in health and safety?’ And I thought to myself, ‘OK, why not?’”

If this sounds like the decision was taken casually, it did fit fully with Mohamed’s ambitions, as he explains. 

“I took the apprenticeship on purpose because I wanted to spend a lot of time in high-risk environments and learn from people. And I think when it comes to health and safety, although the technical side is very important, experience is equally important. It would have been difficult if I’d just done a short qualification and tried to advise people who have been in industry for over 20 years, it wouldn’t make sense. Hopefully the more years I put in, the better my advice would be.”

It was fascinating

He was placed in a project building bridges, tunnels – “things that I’d never seen before. It’s the Colne Valley viaduct. They were building 16-kilometre tunnels.”

For the first year of the apprenticeship, he says, “I didn’t really focus on the study side. It was more practical, seeing how the safety system works and heavy machinery: how it’s used, prepared, supervised and monitored.

“It was fascinating. And then after a year, I started to focus on the coursework. So the apprenticeship was very useful. Actually, it allowed me to do the practical side without rushing.”

He gained valuable first-hand knowledge during the apprenticeship. “I was exposed to a lot of high-risk environments. Now, because I’ve experienced it before, I know what process to follow in order to deal with it.” 

Mohamed now gives health and safety consultancy to small and medium-sized businesses in London in a range of industries including care, manufacturing and construction. 

Progressing through the grades

Mohamed joined IOSH as a Student Member and progressed to Technical Member, before taking an NVQ to become Certified. He found Blueprint and the ethical material useful. “Blueprint helped me to question myself. I tried to be honest and say, oh, this is an area where I need to improve on, so I’ll flag it and I’ll try to do more work on it. I’m enjoying CPD, but sometimes you lose track and forget to do it. The emails and reminders from IOSH were very helpful.”

He’s now working towards Chartered membership. “A lot of organisations are looking for experience and the right technical qualifications. The knowledge I’ve gained has helped me and given me the confidence to face clients and then help them with challenges that they come across.”

Conveying the right message

Through working in a large and complex project, Mohamed learned some important communication skills. “I think in health and safety, you need to be able to work with different departments. And then get your message across, while not stressing them out.” 

“If someone comes to you and reports an issue or you’ve noticed an unsafe practice, try to deal with it in a respectful way. Don’t shame them. You know, don’t make them look stupid.”

And he brings something from other parts of his life too. “I play football and at times, you know, we’re losing 5-0 and everyone’s head is down. And so I try to encourage team mates to just keep their head up, move on to the next game. I think during a crisis I tend to thrive and take responsibility.”  

Final words

To young people thinking about starting a career in health and safety, Mohamed has this advice: “Never be afraid to speak to people. When you speak to a lot of experienced people, they want to talk to people, especially young people. You never know, speaking to them, they might know another person who can help.” Who knows where that might lead?