IOSH Working Safely study guide
IOSH Working Safely · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
IOSH Working Safely is an entry-level workplace health and safety awareness course offered within the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) family of training. IOSH describes itself as a global occupational safety and health body with 50,000 members worldwide across 130 countries, and it lists awareness courses among its course categories, with Managing Safely named as a specific awareness course. Note that the dedicated Working Safely page on the IOSH site currently returns a 'Page not found' error, and Working Safely is not named in the retrieved IOSH text, so assessment details such as question count, duration, pass mark, fee, retake policy and certificate validity could not be confirmed and are treated as unknown here. The course is typically suited to people at any level in any sector who need a basic grounding in safety rather than a professional qualification. The IOSH Working Safely study guide has 4 sections and about 1,493 words.
01Introducing working safely
This domain tests whether you understand why workplace safety is managed, who is responsible, and how the law works in practice. IOSH frames the case around three drivers: moral (people should not be harmed), legal (duties and penalties), and financial (lost time, insurance, fines, reputation).
372 words, about 2 min02Defining hazards
This domain checks whether you can separate a hazard (something with the potential to cause harm) from a risk (the chance, high or low, that somebody will be harmed, together with how serious the harm could be). A wet floor is a hazard; the risk depends on who walks there, how likely a slip is, and what injury could result.
359 words, about 2 min03Identifying common hazards
This domain tests whether you can spot common workplace hazards and match them to sensible controls. The syllabus groups them broadly: slips, trips and falls; work at height; manual handling; hazardous substances; electricity; machinery; noise and vibration; fire; confined spaces; vehicles and transport; and violence, stress and ergonomic risks.
383 words, about 2 min04Improving safety performance
This domain tests how organisations improve safety performance: reporting, investigation, monitoring, training, consultation and review. The exam expects you to know that safety is managed continuously, not proved by a low accident count alone.
379 words, about 2 min