Phase 4 · Meet the Core Objectives
8. Health, Safety and Risk Management
That you know the law and the hazards, that you manage risk in your own work rather than delegating it to a form, and that people are safer because of decisions you made.
Who this is for:Candidates at any stage ·Mentors
Minimum standard: Experience for Incorporated-Member, Experience for Chartered Member.
Core Objective 8 — what IStructE says
Institution of Structural Engineers
- This objective is intended to demonstrate a candidate's experience in meeting health and safety requirements and legislation.
- Minimum standard, Incorporated-Member: E — Experience. The subject should be performed independently or under supervision.
- Minimum standard, Chartered Member: E — Experience. The subject should be performed independently or under supervision.
From IPD Guidance — Chartered Member, Institution of Structural Engineers.
What strong and weak evidence look like
Worth doing
- A hazard you designed out, with what the alternative would have cost.
- A residual risk you could not remove, and how you recorded and communicated it.
- An occasion when you stopped work or refused to sign, and what followed.
- Evidence you understand your duties under the relevant legislation in the role you actually held.
- A risk assessment where your input changed the method.
Avoid
- Listing the safety courses you have attended.
- Describing the company's safety management system rather than your actions in it.
- Naming the legislation without being able to say which duty holder you were.
- A design that apparently eliminated every risk.
Portfolio items that tend to work here
4 items · saved in this browser only
Suggestions, not a required list. What matters is that the item is yours, that it is annotated, and that it demonstrates the standard rather than the subject.
Questions to ask yourself
Which duty holder was I on this project?
The roles are specific, reviewers ask, and a vague answer undermines the whole objective.
What hazard is still there because of a decision I made?
Residual risk is where honest safety evidence lives.
When did raising something cost me?
One occasion with a cost is worth more than any amount of stated commitment.
The same objective, in different kinds of work
| Setting | What the evidence tends to look like |
|---|---|
| Designer | Removing a working-at-height task from the maintenance regime, and recording what could not be removed. |
| Site | Rewriting a method statement that looked compliant but did not match how the work would really be done. |
| Client-side | Setting the pre-construction information properly, so risk was managed before the job was priced. |
Illustrative. The objectives are written to be met in a range of ways by anyone practising as a structural engineer.
How reviewers tend to approach this objective
- Asking you to name the principal hazards on your project and what you did about each.
- Asking what you would do about unsafe work on someone else's site.
- Asking about your legal duties in the role you held.
- Asking about welfare and mental health, not only physical safety.
There is a bank of original practice questions in the interview question bank, filterable by objective and by grade.
Related pages and tools
- Core ObjectivesWhat IStructE assesses, what Knowledge, Experience and Ability actually mean, and where the two grades differ.
- EvidenceThe difference between describing a project and evidencing a Core Objective, and what reviewers are actually reading for.
- Evidence matrixBuilding the grid of objectives against evidence, so you can see coverage rather than hope for it.
- Gap analysisWhat to do about an objective you cannot evidence — and how long each kind of gap actually takes to close.
- The portfolioWhat the portfolio is for, when it has to be ready, who receives it, and the format rules that decide whether it is read.
- Question bankPractice questions across all ten Core Objectives, filtered by grade, by the standard they are pitched at, and by depth.