BOHS announces beneficiaries of bursary

A British Occupational Hygiene Society product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Mar 15, 2007

Latest round of Bursary Awards announced by The British Occupational Hygiene Society.

The British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) is announcing the latest beneficiaries of its bursary programme.

Scott Clark, studying for an MSc in Occupational Hygiene at the University of Manchester, and Iyenoma Osazee, who is studying for an MSc in Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety Management at the University of Portsmouth, have each been awarded a bursary to cover one year's tuition fee.

As with the first round of awards last July, there were several high quality applications for this second round, and so congratulations are extended to both of these worthy winners.

With free student membership of BOHS and an allocated mentor also part of the award, BOHS looks forward to mutually beneficial relationships with these excellent students at what is hopefully the start of their successful careers in occupational hygiene.

Scott is 33, has a BEng in Environmental and Ecological Engineering which followed a four year engineering apprenticeship, and is currently a Cleanroom and Environmental Engineer at Vega Environmental Consultants in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear.

His aim is to effectively combine the experience gained from his previous engineering apprenticeship and degree with this new discipline of occupational hygiene in order to provide a comprehensive understanding and application of appropriate testing protocols concerned with the anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of hazardous substances in the workplace.

Without this BOHS bursary, Scott would have had to self-fund his MSc entirely.

He is confident that he can repay the faith shown in his potential by "providing a professional and influential service to clients concerned with the control of hazardous substances in order to provide a safer working environment".

Iyenoma is a 44 year old Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Manager with Julius Berger Nigeria plc, based in Abuja, Nigeria.

He has a Higher National Diploma in Civil and Building Engineering, a PGD in Management, an International Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health from the British Safety Council, and a wealth of experience in civil and safety engineering.

Less than a year into his three year Msc programme, Iyenoma has been planning to fund himself throughout, with some difficulty.

But he is clearly committed to improving the health of workers in Nigeria, having moved from the engineering department of his organisation to the HSE department out of genuine concern for the health, safety and welfare of the workers.

"Despite the clearly unsafe nature of many of the workplaces [in Nigeria], occupational illness is poorly monitored and rarely diagnosed as work-related."Workers are poorly informed about the health risks of their work or are afraid of mentioning their health problems because of job insecurity," according to Iyenoma.

He sees his future in contributing to the development of occupational health practice in his country, by helping to integrate occupational health and safety education into the educational system, and a health and safety culture throughout organisations.

BOHS's bursary scheme is for students wanting to gain a higher education qualification in Occupational Hygiene, with up to five bursaries every year to be awarded biannually, each of up to £4,000 towards the payment of academic fees.

The closing date for the next round of applications is 31st July 2007.