The BCSP Partners eNewsletter is an eNewsletter designed to share information about organizations which play a part in advancing the safety profession. In it you will find news from our sponsoring organizations, resources from collaborative efforts, and perspectives from companies using BCSP certifications.

We encourage you not only to read the eNewsletter, but to share your ideas on what you would like to see in it.

The Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) has partnered with two great organizations since the beginning of the year, the Association of General Contractors (AGC) and International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust (IMPACT). Our organizations share safety as a common value, these partnerships pledge to work cooperatively in representing industry needs and keeping workers affected by each group safe from harm.

AGC and IMPACT join a growing number of organizations with which BCSP collaborates, including the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), International Network of Safety & Health Practitioner Organisations (INSHPO), and our Sponsoring Organizations. Together, we each bring strengths that contribute to the growth of the industry.

These new partnerships will enhance our global reach. I am proud to report that our recent credential agreement with the Government of India's Directorate General, Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes, Ministry of Labour & Employment has supported numerous safety professionals in applying for the Certified Safety Professional� (CSP) certification in the first few months of its being in effect.

These organizational developments, combined with our further enhancement of the Certification Management System (CMS), promise to make 2015 another year of exceptional growth for BCSP.

I thank all our partners, Sponsoring Organizations, and STS/STSC sponsors for joining with us to advance the safety profession. I look forward to sharing our expertise in safety credentialing, and learning from each other as we work together this year for the success of all of our joint stakeholders.

The Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) signed a partnership agreement to improve occupational safety and health at worksites throughout the United States. Stephen Sandherr, AGC CEO, and Cece Weldon, CSP, CHST, STS, BCSP Board President, executed the agreement, signing the document together at the AGC Safety and Health Committee Conference this January.

The partnership between BCSP and AGC grew from each holding safety as a common value. Many of BCSP's STS Sponsors are AGC members.

"I applaud the AGC and BCSP for taking a joint step to bolster the importance of certification and promote the qualifications of those safety professionals associated with AGC," said Daniel J. Milinazzo, CSP, ARM, CHST, Director of Safety and Health at Hensel Phelps Construction Group. Hensel Phelps is an STS Sponsor and AGC Member, and Milinazzo was at the conference where the AGC-BCSP Partnership Agreement was signed.

Hensel Phelps is improving upon the career paths of safety professionals. "The policy identifies specific levels of BCSP credentialing required for an entry-level safety engineer position and additional certification, up to a CSP, to be considered for promotion," Milinazzo explains. "As a result of this career path, we have seen a higher level of professionalism from our safety team and an increased number of people pursuing certification through the BCSP."

Also at the signing was Joaquin M. Diaz, MM, CSP, Health, Safety, and Environmental Director at Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company,Inc. "Achieving STS designations for several layers of leadership is a long-term goal within our organization," said Diaz. "With the dynamics of our work and the introduction of new safety technology in the industry it is great to see more of our supervisors carry the STS and maintain an awareness of how the latest technology can be incorporated into the work. This will help improve our safety efforts from our own employees, subcontractors, vendors, or any other party connected to our work."

"I believe AGC and its members recognize the impact of certifications and the quality of safety professionals and supervisors achieving those certifications," Diaz added. "This AGC-BCSP partnership is a good initiative."

Each organization is now in the process of implementing the agreement's multiple provisions.

"Our new partnership will do much more to help improve construction safety, including working to strengthen recruiting efforts designed to get students to consider careers as safety professionals," said Stephen Sandherr, the Chief Executive Officer of the Associated General Contractors of America. "Ultimately the Board and AGC share the same goal - a near future where every construction worker goes home safe and healthy every day."

Sandherr and Weldon sign the AGC-BCSP Partnership Agreement

The Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP), the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, and the Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust (IMPACT) established a collaborative partnership to advance safety among those working in the trade in the United States and Canada.

IMPACT Labor Co-Chairman, Walter W. Wise; IMPACT Management Co-Chairman, William W. Brown; and BCSP Board President, Cece Weldon, CSP, CHST, STS signed the agreement at the opening of the general session of the Ironworkers/IMPACT Annual Meeting February 24, 2015.

Read the full news release.

L-R: William Brown, Cece Weldon, Walter Wise

Growing the safety profession with the expansion of the global economy is a goal of BCSP. Outreach efforts, including participation in the International Network of Safety & Health Practitioner Organisations (INSHPO) and in Sponsor Organizations' international conferences, have built new networks between safety professionals.

These networks are yielding results. In July 2014, BCSP was granted special consultative status by the United Nations. In October 2014, BCSP signed an agreement with a division of the Government of India's Ministry of Labour and Employment allowing persons holding its Diploma in Industrial Safety to apply for the CSP.

Moataz Nour, CSP, a safety professional in Doha, Qatar is an advocate for international safety certification. He leads presentations and sessions on the value of safety and safety certifications, and has reached about 25 organizations in many different sectors, including construction, oil and gas, and related services with help of consultancy organizations like Arbrit Safety & Engineering Solution. "BCSP certifications are well recognized and respected all over the world, so being a CSP made it possible to access different symposiums and professional events and to share different experiences as an expert," Nour explains.

"For those who are looking forward to advancing to the next level in their careers, or who need additional competitive advantage, they go directly to safety certification," says Nour. "The best way of practicing safety would really require the safety professional to be capable of understanding and considering the different aspects of managing a business, in addition to robust knowledge and skills in safety science. The CSP provided me a guideline I could use to develop a world class competence as a safety professional and start implementing a more efficient approach to the way I manage and deal with safety concerns."

"Generally, safety certifications are being looked at as a must to prove competence and capabilities," Nour explains. This, he says, is a big part of setting a global minimum competence profile for safety professionals.

BCSP certifications are recognized as "Gold Standard" safety certifications around the world, protecting and developing workers, informing the development of international safety, health and environmental (SH&E) standards, and contributing to the international advancement of the safety profession.

BCSP certificants call approximately 59 countries home, those countries marked above in green