Why choose BOHS qualifications?
BOHS is the only society in the UK which represents occupational hygiene as a distinct discipline, and our Faculty of Occupational Hygiene is the only UK examining board for practical and professional qualifications in occupational hygiene. Our first professional qualifications were introduced in May 1969, and there have been over 25,000 successful candidates through the system since then.
The creation of a syllabus and examination process for any subject is complex and involves many stages to ensure the technical quality and integrity of the final qualification; our quality control systems are robust and include a continuous review process which incorporates many independent experts. We work closely with regulators and practitioners to ensure that our syllabuses and examinations are up-to-date and relevant. Sixteen of our qualifications are currently listed in HSE guidance documents as being the industry standard for their particular subject.
BOHS is a fully independent professional body which has no affiliations to any industry or trade organisation. As a Company Limited by Guarantee and a Registered Charity, any surplus (ie. profit) made by BOHS is automatically reinvested in the company, not paid to directors or shareholders.
Special needs
Candidates who may need special consideration for any of our written examinations, eg. for dyslexia, must provide BOHS with a copy of their Certificate of Assessment or equivalent medical confirmation at least ten working days before the date of the examination. Contact Shaster Arif shaster.arif@bohs.org for further details.
Duplicate certificates
We can only produce duplicate certificates for awards made on or after 1 January 2003. If your award was before 1 January 2003, or from an examining board which no longer exists [such as BIOH, BEBOH and BERBOH, all predecessors of the Faculty of Occupational Hygiene], then we can issue a Statement of Results. To obtain a duplicate certificate or a Statement of Results please complete the application form and return to BOHS with payment of £25 and a copy of photo ID, eg. passport or driving licence. We aim to process all applications within two weeks of receipt of the form, proof of ID and payment.
Queries and Appeals
Queries, appeals and complaints must be submitted in writing by post, fax or email to the BOHS Head Office and where possible, before the results have been issued.
In general, queries/appeals should be raised by candidates or course providers; issues raised by others (eg. employers) will be addressed but we are unable to discuss individual performances of candidates with a third party, including their employer.
If a complaint is specifically about the conduct and/or content of a taught course, this should be addressed directly to the course provider concerned in the first instance.
Borderline results on written examinations are automatically remarked before being issued, therefore any request for remarking will be confined to checking that no administrative errors have occurred.
No appeal will be entertained solely on the grounds that the candidate wishes to challenge the judgement of the examiners.
Download our Queries and Appeals Policy for full details.
Examination scripts
BOHS does not make available to candidates their marked examination scripts after the examination.
BOHS policy is consistent with the Data Protection Act 1998, under which awarding bodies are not legally obliged to provide access to examination scripts. Schedule 7 Paragraph 9 of the Data Protection Act states that "personal data consisting of information recorded by students during an academic, professional or other examination are exempt". 'Examination' is defined under the Act as including "any process for determining the knowledge , intelligence, skill or ability of a candidate by reference to his performance in any test, work or other activity".
Qualifications verification service
If you would like to establish the authenticity of any BOHS examination certificate, please contact Melanie Chapman melanie.chapman@bohs.org and provide as many details about the candidate/examination certificate as possible, and we will do our best to verify the award.
We do publish names of holders of some of our more recent qualifications, which you can download from the download boxes above. Please be aware that some genuine award holders have opted not to have their names published here.