Kevin Winklaar

Name of study

Integral Safety (IV) or Integral Safety Science (IVK) is the name of the higher professional education program in the Netherlands where students are trained to become integral safety experts. This means that they gain knowledge in the broad field of safety.

 

History

The study Integral Safety Science (IVK) arose from a series of events that had a major impact on society at the beginning of the 21st century. In particular, events like the:

- Fireworks disaster in Enschede (13 May 2000);

- the New Year's fire in Volendam (1 January 2001);

- the attacks in the US (September 11, 2001);

- the attacks in Madrid (11 March 2004) and

- the attacks in London (7 and 21 July 2005).

 

This fueled the realization that the social security system had to be professionalised, and related professionals had to be trained to work in the field. This has resulted in higher professional education studies that have been available since about the middle of the first decade of the 21st century. Most programs are based on public administration, but primarily focused on safety.

 

Courses during the Integrated Safety Science course

During the training, subjects such as fire safety, vandalism, business administration and criminology are discussed. Business administration, psychology and law are also indispensable subjects during this course. During the study you learn to assess risks and you gain knowledge and skills about everything related to safety.

 

Bias

Because integrated safety is a relatively young and unknown field, in practice an integrated safety expert is often incorrectly associated with the private security guard or safety officer in the field of working conditions and occupational safety. This is generally incorrect.

Both in the world of private security and in that of occupational safety, different qualifications are required and this covers a different field of activity than what is mainly addressed in integrated security. In the field of occupational safety, people usually work in an organization and are, for example, concerned with subjects such as working conditions, risk inventories and evaluations (RI&Es), the emergency response organization or evacuation plans. Officers who work in this area often have secondary safety science (MVK) or higher safety science (HVK) as prior training. The MVK/HVK courses have a strong technical perspective with a specialist character, in contrast to IV/IVK, which has an administrative perspective with a generalist character. The HVK Safety Studies and the MVK Safety Studies are offered by various private training institutes.

 

Function options?

After completing the Integrated Safety Science course, you can work for a municipality or government, the police, the fire brigade or other companies. Example professions where integral safety science comes in handy are the head of safety, prevention advisor, private investigator or crisis researcher. Some of these professions are still relatively new.

As a safety expert you work together with different parties. These are often the emergency services or social organizations. The municipality also plays a role in social safety. As a safety expert you contribute to safety at an event, concert, football match or other occasions. In recent years, integral security has become increasingly important.