Blog

This time it’s the turn of our newest junior consultant, Shahida Akhtar. This is one woman’s story of how she went from Admin Apprentice to Health and Safety Master in just 3 short years.

Shahida was born in Peterborough in 1994 and excelled at school and left St John Fisher with A Levels in sociology, art, history and English literature. After school Shahida couldn’t wait to start work and found an opening as an admin apprentice at Sphere. Working for us, Shahida found that she really enjoyed the health and safety industry. It was something she had no prior experience of and loved the challenge of learning new skills. She also saw a future for herself at Sphere, with plenty of opportunity to grow, develop and thrive.

Shahida’s first task was the complicated job of subcontractor control. Undaunted, she tackled the challenge with relish and, soon after, dominated the minefield of safety systems in procurement (SSIP) with similar aplomb. Shahida once completed an SSIP for a client Russell Civil Engineers who had a very harsh assessor and she fought for the client to be assessed again and got approved.

It was obvious we had uncovered a pearl and the world of health and safety was her oyster.

Fast forward three years, and Shahida is now looking forward to finishing her level 6 in Health and Safety. Shahida’s level 6 assessment, which she fully intends to pass with distinction, will make her a tech IOSH. After this, only qualifying as a grad IOSH stands between this impressive lady and becoming a Health and Safety Overlord!