Ascending Heights: Dallas Cooper’s Journey as a Scaffolding Health and Safety Advisor at SIMIAN

In the dynamic world of construction, ensuring the safety of workers is paramount. Scaffolding, a crucial aspect of construction projects, demands meticulous attention to health and safety standards. Within this challenging area, Dallas Cooper has emerged as a beacon of expertise and dedication, particularly in his role as a Scaffolding Health and Safety Advisor.

Let’s find out more about Dallas and his inspiration behind this career choice. . .

Why did you want to get into Health and Safety?

I got into Scaffolding at an early age through my uncle, first being a labourer on site and then progressing through my qualifications to become an advanced scaffolder with a class 2 wagon license too! After finishing all my training and becoming an Advanced Chargehand Scaffolder and being on the tools for 14 years, I was on the lookout for a career change when I saw the vacancy for Health and Safety Advisor advertised at SIMIAN.

What qualifications have you obtained to do your job?

I had to have all my CISRS qualifications and experience on the tools and SIMIAN have advanced my career by providing me with NEBOSH Construction certificate, Level 3 PTLLS award in education and training and also my IOSH for managing safely.

What does a typical working day look like for you?

Each day is different which is what I like about the job. I can be delivering a short duration training course onsite, carrying out a scaffold inspection, accident investigations, incident investigations, anchor testing, or writing up my reports.
Every single day is different!
Also I have been able to see a lot of the country with having to travel as SIMIAN’s clients are all over the UK. I have been to Inverness, Dublin, Newcastle, South London and many many more!  

Would you recommend health & safety to others and why?

Yes I would definitely recommend, you get to experience various different types of projects in many different locations, all whilst trying to make the work place safer, in particular scaffolds.

What’s your Career highlight?

With 2 of my other Health and Safety colleagues, I worked at the Queen’s funeral as the onsite health and safety advisors for one of our scaffolding clients who had provided the camera hides, tv production towers, audience areas etc to ensure they were safe and compliant.
That’s something I will never do again!

What is your 5 year plan?

I would like to continue progressing my career by gaining more health and safety qualifications such as the NIBOSH National Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety and gaining more knowledge and experience in my field and ultimately helping to keep the workplace safe.