Albert Sawatzky
“Showing an achievement, such as earning the Gold Seal Certification can be used as a reference for future employment opportunities or to show peers/members that you are still actively trying to advance yourself, and keep up to date with current knowledge, and be successful with anything that comes your way regarding staying informed with industry trends.”
Albert Sawatzky, GSC, Health and Safety Manager
Albert is the Health and Safety manager within his organization. He oversees development, facilitation of their safety, health, and environmental program. He maintains the safety, health and environment program helping to ensure that his organization develops programming with procedures, policies and practices, compliant with local regulation and national and international standards. Albert’s organization is certified in COR, ISO 9001, ISO14001 and OHSAS 18001. His favorite thing about his role is going to new client sites and being able to see what the sites are all about, including what the processes are and how the facility operates. What he loves most about safety is the exposure to people involved on projects. “There are several reasons to be involved with safety. First, it’s ensuring that people who are working, come to work every day and are not getting hurt. Avoiding injury allows people to achieve their goals in life because they’ve not succumbed to a serious injury. Protecting workers is important. I call it ‘saving life and limb’. That’s what fuels me to do my job.”
Albert discovered the Gold Seal Certification when he was going to complete his NCSO at his Local Construction Association. The Gold Seal Certification was important step for Albert’s career because “on the construction side of things, it’s something that recognizes that I do have the knowledge to practice the safety profession in the construction sector. It’s also important for me on a personal level for my portfolio. It helps maintain other designations that I have and it’s just another way to show myself that I’ve achieved something I worked hard at. It solidified the fact that I worked on achieving a goal and made it.”
Nevertheless, there were challenges along his way to getting certified. “As with any program, it’s important to get to know all sides of safety program facilitation, development, and get that hands-on experience. After accomplishing those steps, that’s when you begin to finally cross the difficult points and obstacles. You have to be able to sell yourself as someone who knows safety programming and business relations and involves everyone in an organization to accomplish goals.”
“I feel great about it, even though I am busy, I was able to accomplish it and I’m ready for the next challenge… It’s another avenue available that recognizes your knowledge and skills in the safety field. The Gold Seal certification is a designation that confirms that you know about construction and you are knowledgeable in safety.”