Safety Voices series welcomes IOSH Nominations Committee member James Irwin for a session on building a long-term career in health and safety

ecoPortal, a New-Zealand born health, safety, and risk management software, will host a live webinar titled “Building a Successful Career in Safety: Skills, Tech, and the Art of Influence“ on 22 September 2026 at 2:00 PM BST. The one-hour session is part of the company’s ongoing Safety Voices webinar series.

The webinar will bring together host Julian Taylor and guest speaker James Irwin, Director at Irwin and Colton. Irwin is an active member of the IOSH Nominations Committee and a specialist in health, safety, and environment (HSE) recruitment, with a track record of delivering workshops alongside NEBOSH and Make UK.

The session is grounded in a simple but often-overlooked statistic: the average person will spend roughly 80,000 hours of their life at work. Despite this, many safety professionals allow their careers to be shaped by circumstance rather than intentional planning. Industry data consistently shows that when top talent leaves a role, the reasons rarely come down to compensation alone: poor management, a lack of senior support, and stagnant progression are far more common drivers.

Attendees can expect practical guidance on how to build their own personal brands, setting goals, connecting to mentors and designing the dream career, thinking of safety through a sales perspective. Irwin will move beyond standard technical checklists to offer real-world strategies for building a safety career professionals can genuinely sustain and enjoy.

Registration

Registration is now open. Interested professionals can sign up at: https://www.ecoportal.com/webinars-uk/building-a-successful-career-in-safety-skills-tech-and-the-art-of-influence

About the Speaker

James Irwin, Director at Irwin and Colton, advises organizations on recruitment, talent strategy, and leadership to help build high-performing health and safety teams. An active member of the IOSH Nominations Committee, Irwin has spent years helping professionals bridge the gap between technical competency and career progression, using real-world data and practical career design principles.

About ecoPortal

ecoPortal is a leading Health & Safety Management Software that helps organisations streamline incident reporting, risk tracking, audits and compliance. The company’s Safety Voices webinar series brings together industry leaders to share insights on the most pressing topics in workplace health and safety.