May - July 2014

Examiners Report
NEBOSH International
General Certificate in
Occupational Health
and Safety (IGC1)
Examiners’ Report
UNIT IGC1:
MANAGEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL
HEALTH AND SAFETY

MAY – JULY 2014

For: NEBOSH International General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety

NEBOSH International Certificate in Fire Safety and Risk Management
NEBOSH International Certificate in Construction Health and Safety

CONTENTS

Introduction 2

General comments 3

Candidate performance 4

Examination technique 4

Command words 6

Learning outcomes 7

Conclusion 8

 2014 NEBOSH, Dominus Way, Meridian Business Park, Leicester LE19 1QW
tel: 0116 263 4700 fax: 0116 282 4000 email: info@nebosh.org.uk website: www.nebosh.org.uk

The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health is a registered charity, number 1010444
 Introduction

NEBOSH (The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health) was formed in 1979 as
an independent examining board and awarding body with charitable status. We offer a
comprehensive range of globally-recognised, vocationally-related qualifications designed to meet the
health, safety, environmental and risk management needs of all places of work in both the private and
public sectors.

Courses leading to NEBOSH qualifications attract around 50,000 candidates annually and are offered
by over 600 course providers, with examinations taken in over 110 countries around the world. Our
qualifications are recognised by the relevant professional membership bodies including the Institution
of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and the International Institute of Risk and Safety
Management (IIRSM).

NEBOSH is an awarding body that applies best practice setting, assessment and marking and applies
to Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) regulatory requirements.

This report provides guidance for candidates which it is hoped will be useful to candidates and tutors
in preparation for future examinations. It is intended to be constructive and informative and to promote
better understanding of the syllabus content and the application of assessment criteria.

© NEBOSH 2014

Any enquiries about this report publication should be addressed to:

NEBOSH
Dominus Way
Meridian Business Park
Leicester
LE19 1QW

tel: 0116 263 4700

fax: 0116 282 4000
email: info@nebosh.org.uk

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 General comments

Many candidates are well prepared for this unit assessment and provide comprehensive and relevant
answers in response to the demands of the question paper. This includes the ability to demonstrate
understanding of knowledge by applying it to workplace situations.

There are other candidates, however, who appear to be unprepared for the unit assessment and who
show both a lack of knowledge of the syllabus content and a lack of understanding of how key
concepts should be applied to workplace situations.

This report has been prepared to provide feedback on standard date and on-demand IGC1
examinations sat between May to July 2014.

Feedback is presented in these key areas; examination technique, command words and learning
outcomes and is designed to assist candidates and course providers to prepare for future
assessments in this unit.

Candidates and course providers will also benefit from use of the ‘Guide to the NEBOSH International
General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety’, which is available via the NEBOSH website. In
particular, the guide sets out in detail the syllabus content for IGC1 and tutor reference documents for
each Element.

Additional guidance on command words is provided in ‘Guidance on command words used in learning
outcomes and question papers’, which is also available via the NEBOSH website.

Candidates and course providers should also make reference to the IGC1 ‘Example question paper
and Examiners’ feedback on expected answers’, which provides example questions and details
Examiners’ expectations and typical areas of underperformance.

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 Unit IGC1
Management of international health and safety

Candidate performance
This report covers all examinations, both standard and on-demand examination sittings during May to
July 2014.

Examination technique
The following examination techniques were identified as the main areas of improvement for
candidates:

Candidates misread/misinterpreted the question

Where candidates misread or misinterpret a question, the consequences in terms of marks can be
significant. Candidates can miss out on most or even all of the marks that are available for that
question.

An example of a way that candidates may misread or misinterpret a question could be: where a
question requires candidates to outline reasons why safety training may be needed they fail to give
reasons why, and instead provide an answer describing how training might be delivered.

Candidates need to be reminded to read questions with care and be sure that they understand what is
required before beginning their answer.

In some cases, there may also be a link between those weaknesses and ‘rote-learning’ and/or where
candidates practise questions and assume that the one in the question paper is one that they have
seen before.

As mentioned above, candidates need to read the question carefully to ensure that they understand
what aspect of a topic (for example, training) is required in their answer.

Candidates did not respond effectively to the command word

Care to follow the command word is very important in candidates’ efforts to gain marks. If a candidate
does not follow the command word they can miss out on marks even if they display some knowledge
of the topic of the question. The most common weakness is where candidates provide too little
content in their answer to be a valid ‘outline’ or ‘explain’ and instead only list or identify points.

There is NEBOSH guidance for candidates and course providers. NEBOSH’s ‘Guidance on command
words’ document is available to all via the NEBOSH website and is an essential resource.

Another measure that can assist candidates to avoid this error is to allow them to practise questions
and to receive appropriate feedback as to whether or not the answer provided meets the requirements
of the command word.

Candidates repeated the same point but in different ways

It is likely that this weakness has one of two causes. It may be that the candidate lacked knowledge of
the topic of the question and having given the limited number of points they knew, they then repeated
them. Alternatively, this weakness could be the result of lack of planning of an answer and where a
candidate writes a point in the answer not realising that it has already been given.

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This second weakness can be addressed by candidates doing practice questions in examination-like
conditions. This should assist candidates to get the right balance of considering a question, planning
their answer and having sufficient time to write it.

Candidates unnecessarily wrote the question down

Candidates need to state the number of the question that they are answering, but do not need to write
down the question in their answer booklet.

Written English

Some candidates, perhaps those who have English as a second language, were not able to provide
clear answers to the questions set. Difficulty with written English may have been a compounding
factor where the command word (for example ‘describe’) requires more than a list of points.

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Command words
The following command words are listed in the order identified as being the most challenging for
candidates:

Outline

The most common weakness was candidates’ failure to provide sufficient depth of answer to be an
appropriate outline, and instead candidates only list or identify points.

Explain

Where a question requires the candidate to ‘explain’ they need to provide an explanation, that is to
include in their answer sufficient to communicate why or how.

In a similar manner to that mentioned above, some candidates just provide a list or identification of
points and their answers lack the explanation required.

This weakness may be related to poor examination technique (lack of attention to command word) but
it could also indicate limited knowledge of the topic of the question and a lack of ability to deal with the
question asked.

Describe

A ‘describe’ question requires candidates to be able to provide the required element of description in
their answer. Some candidates did not provide that depth of answer but only listed points.

Give

A question that requires candidates to ‘give’ usually includes a further requirement such as ‘give the
meaning (of a term)’ or ‘give an example of’. It is likely that poor performance where ‘give’ is the
command word relates either to a candidate misreading the question and not understanding what is
required in the answer, or a lack of knowledge of the question topic, for example when asked for the
meaning of a term the candidate could not do so.

Identify

Most candidates performed reasonably or well where the question had this command word.

Candidates need to understand the meanings of command words and understand why they are
important. Candidates need to follow command words carefully if they are to gain the marks that their
knowledge of the topic should enable them to achieve.

Practising questions and learning from feedback will help many candidates. Practice questions would
also be helpful to those candidates who need feedback on the standard of their written English.

For additional guidance, please see NEBOSH’s ‘Guidance on command words’ document, which is
available on our website: www.nebosh.org.uk/students/default.asp?cref=1345&ct=2.

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Learning outcomes
Candidates performed well in these areas of the syllabus:

1.2 Explain the moral, social and economic reasons for maintaining and promoting good
standards of health and safety in the workplace

This leaning outcome requires candidates to be able to demonstrate understanding of the size of the
health and safety ‘problem’, what society expects in terms of good standards of health and safety, the
need to provide safe working environments and the business case for good health and safety.

Candidates sometimes misread questions with this leaning outcome. For example, a question about
the business case for health and safety may require an outline of benefits of good standards or costs
of poor standards. As with comments above, candidates need to be sure that they understand what a
question requires of them before setting out their answer.

4.2 Explain the principles and practice of risk assessment

The Guide to the International General Certificate includes eleven bullet points for this leaning
outcome, covering the meaning of key terms like ‘hazard and risk’, the objectives of risk assessments,
how risk assessments are carried out, and how risk assessments can be made and sustained as
effective contributions to good health and safety standards.

This is a syllabus area that many candidates will have encountered in a practical sense in their own
workplace. This practical experience can be helpful to them but can lead some candidates to over rely
on that work experience and not to have studied the topic sufficiently to gain good marks to
examination questions.

The following learning outcomes have been identified as being the most challenging area of the
syllabus for candidates in this period:

3.1 Outline the health and safety roles and responsibilities of employers, managers,
supervisors, workers and other relevant parties

There are six heading bullet points and ten subsidiary bullet points for this learning outcome in the
Guide to the International General Certificate, covering such learning as organisational roles and
responsibilities, management commitment, roles and responsibilities of the different groups within an
organisation, supply chain, client/contractor relationship and shared responsibility of joint occupiers of
premises.

A common weakness was that candidates did not provide sufficient breadth or depth to their answers.

Often, candidates were able to provide some content but either because of a lack of detailed
knowledge or poor examination technique, failed to provide enough valid content in their answer to
gain a good mark.

As an example, where a question asked for ways to ensure good health and safety performance by a
contractor, candidates most often outlined checks related to selection of contractors but not the wider
range of measures that a client can take to ensure good performance.

This may be a syllabus topic where some candidates over rely upon their own work experiences rather
than study when learning or revising. This could mean that they were confident with regard to the
roles and responsibilities of a job role similar to their own, but less able to provide an answer relating
to other responsibilities.

Candidates and their tutors are advised to refer to the full range of content in the Guide to the
International General Certificate for this learning outcome.

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4.5 Explain what factors should be considered when developing and implementing a safe
system of work for general activities

There are eleven bullet points covered in the Guide to the International General Certificate for this
learning outcome. The learning outcome includes the employer’s responsibility to provide safe
systems of work, the role of competent people, worker involvement, development of safe system of
work, different types of controls, and implementation of a safe system of work. There is also content
related to specific safe systems of work such as lone working and confined spaces.

Weaknesses observed relating to this learning outcome are similar to that above. Some candidates
demonstrated that they understood the topic to some degree but either could not or did not go on to
provide an answer covering sufficient points to earn a good mark.

Some candidates (perhaps those without this direct work experience) appeared to have poor
understanding of permits-to-work and their use.

Attention to the full content of leaning outcome 4.5 is needed and candidates who may lose marks by
poor examination technique will benefit from doing practice questions.

5.3 Explain the purpose of, and procedures for, investigating incidents (accidents, cases of
work-related ill-health and other occurrences)

This learning outcome covers such content as accident investigation as a reactive monitoring
measure, different types of incident, basic accident investigation procedures, immediate causes and
root causes and remedial actions. The full content for this learning outcome is in the Guide to the
International General Certificate.

Common weaknesses included: some candidates’ uncertainty with regard to immediate and root
causes; less confidence with incidents other than accidents, for example near miss incidents; and, as
above, a lack of sufficient depth to answers.

Attention to the full content of learning outcome 5.3 is required.

Conclusion
The feedback from Examiners highlighted that candidates taking the IGC1 examinations in May to July
2014 needed most improvement in the areas of health and safety roles and responsibilities,
development and implementation of safe systems of work including the listed specific safe systems in
learning outcome 4.5, and incident investigation.

With regard to examination technique, candidates should ensure that they have read, considered and
understood the question, follow the requirement of the command word and have in mind that a
number of valid points will be needed to gain a good mark-for example, an answer to an ‘outline’
question with eight marks available will not gain a good mark for an outline of two points.

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The National Examination
Board in Occupational
Safety and Health

Dominus Way
Meridian Business Park
Leicester LE19 1QW

telephone +44 (0)116 2634700

fax +44 (0)116 2824000
email info@nebosh.org.uk
www.nebosh.org.uk