KAREN HOSKINS

Health & Safety Manager for Essex Chambers of Commerce Karen Hoskins, Health & Safety Manager for Essex Chambers of Commerce, began her Health and Safety career 10 years ago, qualifying in IOSH Managing Safely, NEBOSH National General Certificate, NEBOSH Diploma pt1. Karen is also a licensed Auditor.

Karen’s commitment to realistic health and safety management lead her to become heavily involved in the production of on-line health and safety training. Karen Hoskins said: “we wanted to find a way of delivering health and safety training to all employees as quickly and effectively as possible, avoiding the need for coordinating training rooms and all those buffet lunches! It’s so easy to put these things on the ‘too difficult to do pile’, time slips by.” Health & Safety training should be provided at the beginning of employment and every year as refresher training.

This course has been specifically developed for use in countries all over the world, as it avoids references to UK health and safety legislation. We’ve developed a 1 hour on-line course which delivers the basic principals of most aspects of health and safety. It’s an excellent starting point for employees who need a basic grounding in health and safety. We currently have the course available in English and also in Turkish.. It’s easy for employers too, as they simply provide the web address and password details to each employee, and the SMART management system automatically collects the training records on-line. Managers can view the records to keep track of progress, and run reports if required.

Karen’s background in health and safety covers many industries, and she’s enjoyed working with the likes of Gulfstream Aerospace at Luton Airport, where she manages the manufacture and maintenance of aircraft (usually private jets). She has also worked with Maxjet airways, Business Link, several Councils, NHS Trusts, Shipping companies, Creative Design companies, Professional International Photographers, Solicitors, Accountants, Colleges and Universities, Work Based Learning Organisations (Train to Gain), and woodworking environments.

Karen currently runs the Health & Safety departments for Essex Chambers of Commerce, the Turkish British Chamber of Commerce, the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce, and will be launching through the Dubai Chamber, Riyadh Chamber and Cambridgeshire Chamber in March 2008. Plans are already underway to launch in other countries including the Philippines.