Level 5 NVQ Diploma

Course details

The City & Guilds Level 5 NVQ Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Practice is a standard qualification for people who are working in the area of health and safety practice. The qualification is suitable for people who work in all industry sectors and ideal if you are responsible for developing and applying health and safety procedures day-to-day in your or someone else’s organisation. The City & Guilds Level 5 NVQ Diploma is equivalent to the NEBOSH Diploma.

The Level 5 NVQ Diploma is a work-based qualification that recognises a person's competence from workplace performance assessment, rather than relying on teaching and examinations.

The qualification needs the collection of evidence from your day-to-day health and safety work activities. This process does not want you to be away from your workplace for long periods and any time spent with your assessor is spread over the period it takes you to complete the qualification, this is essentially a distance learning approach to gain a qualification.

You might already have some experience and may have attained a  City & Guilds Level 3 NVQ Certificate or NEBOSH International General Certificate. Candidates who prefer to be analysed by examinations should consider the NEBOSH International Diploma.

There are ten mandatory units in the City & Guilds Level 5 NVQ Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Practice and the Diploma amounts to 108 credits. You have to demonstrate knowledge and competence in all units to gain the qualification:

• Develop and implement effective communication systems for health and safety information (8 credits)
• Promote a positive health and safety culture (5 credits)
• Develop and maintain inpidual and organisational competence in health and safety matters (10 credits)
• Identify, assess and control health and safety risks (18 credits)
• Develop and implement proactive monitoring systems for health and safety (10 credits)
• Develop and implement reactive monitoring systems for health and safety (15 credits)
• Develop and implement health and safety emergency response systems and procedures (12 credits)
• Develop and implement health and safety review systems (8 credits)
• Develop and implement the health and safety policy (14 credits)

The number of credits shows the size of the unit and award. Many universities will accept this qualification as part of the entry requirements for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate study.

Assessment

There are no examinations with this qualification and it is therefore not possible to fail, candidates are either “competent” or “not yet competent”. The assessment team monitor your progress to offer support and guidance throughout the qualification. Assessment of performance is made by consideration of the results of work-based activities to meet each unit’s assessment criteria.

In particular you will produce a personal portfolio demonstrating understanding and application of the assessment criteria. Your assessor will determine the extent to which your evidence confirms completion of the criteria. Feedback is provided and work to meet the criteria can be re-submitted until completion.