Open HSI menu
Subscribe Login

Home / Articles and Press Releases / Article / The End of an Era

CATEGORIES

  • Latest Issue
  • Above The Neck Protection
  • Chemical Protection
  • Confined Space
  • Construction
  • Emergency Procedures
  • Energy, Oil and Mining Industries
  • Eye Protection
  • Fall Protection
  • Gas Detection
  • Hand Protection
  • Hazardous and Explosive Atmospheres
  • Health and Safety Awareness
  • Hearing Protection
  • Heat and Flame
  • Lighting and ATEX
  • Noise Monitoring
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Respiratory Protection
  • Safety Footwear
  • Safety Technology
  • Safety Training
  • Slips, Trips and Falls
  • Wellbeing at Work
  • Working at Height
  • Working Rights

MORE

  • Press Releases
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • Magazines

COMPANY

  • About
  • Advertising
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
Open HSI menu
Subscribe

Home / Articles and Press Releases / Article / The End of an Era

CATEGORIES

  • Latest Issue
  • Above The Neck Protection
  • Chemical Protection
  • Confined Space
  • Construction
  • Emergency Procedures
  • Energy, Oil and Mining Industries
  • Eye Protection
  • Fall Protection
  • Gas Detection
  • Hand Protection
  • Hazardous and Explosive Atmospheres
  • Health and Safety Awareness
  • Hearing Protection
  • Heat and Flame
  • Lighting and ATEX
  • Noise Monitoring
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Respiratory Protection
  • Safety Footwear
  • Safety Technology
  • Safety Training
  • Slips, Trips and Falls
  • Wellbeing at Work
  • Working at Height
  • Working Rights

MORE

  • Press Releases
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • Magazines

COMPANY

  • About
  • Advertising
  • Newsletter
  • Contact

CATEGORIES

  • Article
  • Press Release
  • Above The Neck Protection
  • Chemical Protection
  • Confined Space
  • Construction
  • Emergency Procedures
  • Energy, Oil and Mining Industries
  • Eye Protection
  • Fall Protection
  • Gas Detection
  • Hand Protection
  • Hazardous and Explosive Atmospheres
  • Health and Safety Awareness
  • Hearing Protection
  • Heat and Flame
  • Lighting and ATEX
  • Noise Monitoring
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Respiratory Protection
  • Safety Footwear
  • Safety Technology
  • Safety Training
  • Slips, Trips and Falls
  • Wellbeing at Work
  • White Papers
  • Working at Height
  • Working Rights

Article

The End of an Era

By Kimberley de Selincourt

| Read Bio

Published: September 04th, 2018

Share this article

Like the stick of seaside rock with Weymouth written through it, Teresa Budworth is NEBOSH through and through, so for many it came as a shock when she announced that she’ll be retiring this Autumn. Before her departure, she caught up with Health & Safety International magazine to reflect on her health and safety career, the safety industry’s evolution, her achievements, and her plans for the future.

For the past 12 years Teresa has led NEBOSH, in that time transforming the charity into the global brand in the field of health, safety and environmental qualifications that it is today. But long before her appointment as CEO, there’s been an almost serendipitous air to Teresa’s ties with NEBOSH.

Teresa said: “By a weird coincidence, the same month I started studying Health and Safety at Aston University was when the head of department, Richard Booth, founded NEBOSH. I still work with him because I also chair the RoSPA awards judging panel and Richard is one of the judges. I wrote to him to tell him I was retiring, because we’ve kept in touch after all these years, and I was embarrassed because he was saying how proud he is of me. It was really nice, but really embarrassing.

“People have been amazed that I’m leaving, saying to me: ‘If we cut you in half you’ve got NEBOSH written all the way through you!’ I can see what they’re saying – I’ve been involved with NEBOSH for much longer than I’ve worked for them.” She certainly has, having delivered and developed the first NEBOSH certificate course on behalf of RoSPA; working as a NEBOSH examiner since the December 1990 examination series; and developing the syllabus for them for an earlier iteration of the diploma.

With her father a union safety representative, and the Health and Safety at Work Act in its infancy, safety was on Teresa’s radar from a young age, meaning she came into the industry straight from school rather than like most people, as a second or third career.

She said: “Studying health and safety was really attractive as a degree, because it combined the study of things like engineering and mathematics, but also the psychology of why people behaved the way they did, as well as the legal framework and occupational health.

I had the privilege of studying safety as an academic subject, the programme was put together in the late 1970s and had all those aspects to it like psychology and organisational behaviour. When I actually went and practiced as a safety professional in the early 80s, however, there was much less emphasis on some of the topics that there is emphasis on today.

Safety was embryonic as a profession back in the early 1980s. We had a saying about some safety practitioners back then – “he’s a boots and goggles man” – meaning their view of safety was restricted to purely PPE, as opposed to where it is now, working with management to ensure that health and safety is factored into management decision making in the way that it is organised and set up. It’s still really important to understand why you should choose a particular form of PPE, but I think the profession has moved on a lot beyond that.

It’s notable that – as would be the case for most of us given the same circumstances – Teresa’s career was in part shaped by poignant reminders of our fleeting mortality. She was party to the impact of poor health and safety at a young age, when the father of children she used to babysit fell from a ladder and died. Teresa said: “Not only did that family lose their father, they lost their home as well because they could no longer pay the mortgage.

She continued: “I also lost my two closest friends in the last two and a half years, both had cancer and both women about my own age. And my mum was only 69 when she died, so you think to yourself: “Are you really going to work until your statutory retirement age?” If I left it as long as my mum I’d only have a couple of years left after that. When you start losing your friends that really brings it home to you.”

None of us going to live forever, but thanks to Teresa’s work with NEBOSH it’s safe to say that countless people will live a lot longer.

Teresa said: “When I joined NEBOSH my aim was to modernise: to give NEBOSH the infrastructure for growth, to expand our international reach, and to work with our course provider partners to develop our product range to meet customers’ needs. I believe we have achieved that.”

She continued: “One of the things I’m really proud of is that NEBOSH contributed to the INSHPO competence framework for health and safety professionals. We’ve been working for the last few years with a group of professional organisations in the field – from 14 countries – and have put forward a framework of what people in health and safety need to be able to do at different levels. I really think that covers the whole range of things you can be involved in and should be aware of as a safety professional.”

She added: “Growing NEBOSH five-fold and achieving that commercial success is important because it helps us to meet our charitable aims, but what’s most important to me, as a career health and safety professional, is that we have enabled more people around the world to achieve safe and healthy working conditions.”

Teresa plans to focus on her non-executive roles, including as Chair of the Chief Fire Officers’ Association and to finish her second book on professional skills for the safety practitioner.

Share this article

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kimberley de Selincourt

Editor at Bay Publishing

Connect with Kimberley de Selincourt

POPULAR POSTS BY Kimberley de Selincourt

Dsc09025 bearbeitet 2 - hsi -

Press Release

Happily Ever Alfter

Safety simplifiedresized2 - hsi -

Article

Safety, Simplified

Istock 1030408968 0 23 1690 3000 - hsi -

Press Release

Resolving to a Safer 2019

Teresa20budworth20 20ceo20nebosh 0 389 1120 1120 - hsi -

Article

The End of an Era

Istock 468496696 0 2033 1408 2500 - hsi -

Article

Editor’s Note – July 2018

Istock 930464754 0 248 1407 2500 - hsi -

Article

Editor’s Note April 2018

Get email updates

Sign up for the HSI newsletter

Keep up-to-date through the power of email with Europe's largest audited safety magazine - delivering the latest news and products to satisfy all your occupational safety needs.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

FEATURED ARTICLES

Press Release

The 6 Most Frequent Questions About Fall Protection, Answered Succinctly

Article

Working at Height Hazards and Control Measures

Article

Major Hazards on Construction Sites

Advertisement

SOCIAL MEDIA

HSI on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/HSIMagazine/

Advertisement

SOCIAL MEDIA

HSI on Twitter

@ ·
now

Reply on Twitter Retweet on Twitter Like on Twitter Twitter

Advertisement

SUBSCRIBE

Stay up to date with our newsletter

    • Keep up-to-date with Europe’s largest audited safety magazine

 

    • Delivering the latest news and products to satisfy all your occupational safety needs

 

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Subscribe

SUBSCRIBE TO HSI MAGAZINE

5 reasons to subscribe to our digital and print package

  • Stay up to date from anywhere in the world, with instant access to the latest issue straight from your phone, tablet or laptop.
  • Trust that you’re getting the best content from our range of internationally accredited authors.
  • Get full access to our archives and see how occupational safety has evolved with us over the years.
  • Enjoy our monthly newsletter curated with up-to-the-minute news and a selection of editor’s top picks.
  • Hot off the press and straight to your door – look forward to your own glossy copy of HSI, delivered five times a year
Subscribe View Subscription levels

STAY SAFE & INFORMED

Subscribe to the best health & safety articles, news, products and regulations

Find out more

Stay up to date with our newsletter

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

ABOUT

  • About HSI International
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us

YOUR ACCOUNT

Sign In Register Account Subscribe to HSI

RESOURCES

Request Media Pack

CONNECT

ACCREDITATIONS

Copyright Bay Publishing 2023. All Rights reserved.

Designed & Built by:
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT