The OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 are training courses for maintenance, construction, or general industry employees. These courses provide a bundle of safety training topics for employers. Most often, companies will provide these courses (course listings shown below) for their employees as a way to catch all of the the OSHA safety training requirements.
At SEED, we aim for comprehensive training development. We seek to build programs that include everything a business needs for the their employees to deliver, train, and track their safety training. Therefore, you can use the information below as a resource for you to understand the additional training that will be needed after completing the OSHA 10/30.
Introduction to OSHA 10/30 – 2 Hours
Fortunately, the contents for this topic is provided on the OSHA website. This is what they have to say about two-hour course:
OSHA has required training content for this module which covers workers’ rights, employer responsibilities and how to file a complaint. It includes helpful worker safety and health resources. It also provides samples of a weekly fatality and 3 catastrophe report, material data safety sheet and the OSHA Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses. Materials include an Instructor Guide, PowerPoint slides, student handouts, and participatory activities.
OSHA.gov
After reviewing the content, you may begin to ask the following questions: Why does this take two-hours? What about state requirements? Are all of these topics necessary when you consider what was already covered in our new orientation? Is there any additional training needed? If you are unsure, make sure you examine if there are any training gaps on these topics:
- State and local procedures and processes
- Industry-specific requirements
- Company-specific reporting procedures
- Include company injury statistics
Walking and Working Surfaces, Including Fall Protection – 1 Hour
This course will cover everything about fall protection. This is certainly a good topic to cover, but there are many requirements for fall protection, and many nuanced regulations to accompany those requirements. Here is a short list of some different fall protection regulations your safety team should evaluate:
- Fall protection
- Working from heights
- Cranes
- Scaffolding
- Fall arrest systems
- and many more…
Once you have completed this section, make sure your employees get some “hands-on” training with the equipment used at your facility. This should include visiting various areas with fall protection, putting on a fall protection harness, and performing inspections on fall arrest systems.
Exit Routes, Emergency Action Plans, Fire Prevention Plans, and Fire Protection – 1 Hour
This topic includes a general overview of exit routes, emergency action plans, fire prevention plans, and fire protection. It also provides standard procedures for each of these topics.
As an employer, you want to make sure you cover your company-specific emergency evacuation procedure along with the fire prevention plans. Do you want your employees attempting to use a fire extinguisher? Do alarms prompt an immediate evacuation? What are the specific meeting points for your employees in case of an emergency? Do you have a specific policy for evacuations and emergencies? Make sure you cover all of these in addition to what was provided in the OSHA 10/30 training.
Electrical, Personal Protective Equipment, Hazard Communication – 1 Hour Each
Each of these topics will provide an hour of training. This is more than enough training for each particular topic. Often times, this tends to be too much time spent on such topics. With that said, it is important that you show your employees the following:
- All necessary PPE for electrical, job hazards, and working with chemicals
- Locations of safety data sheets
- State-specific guidelines for disposing of chemical waste, batteries, universal waste, etc.
- Cover the company policies for each of these topics
- Make sure to highlight how chemicals are stored at your facility, including secondary containment
This is just a small list of items you should add to the topics listed above.
Elective – 2 Hours
The OSHA 10 requires at least two hours of training on the following topics. At least two topics must be presented. The minimum length of any topic is one-half hour.
- Hazardous materials
- Materials handling
- Machine guarding
- Introduction to industrial hygiene
- Bloodborne pathogens
- Ergonomics
- Safety and health program
- Fall protection
Now, you have to choose between adding 2-4 more topics to your OSHA 10/30 training. So, as a company, you may ask, “What topics should I add?” These are our recommendations for determining how to best utilize the elective hours of the OSHA 10.
- Industrial hygiene is a topic which we recommend for most clients. This topic provides a good overview of maintaining a clean workspace, proper lifting, etc.
- Ergonomics is also a good topic to choose as an elective. This serves as a reminder for how employees should position their bodies when working.
- If your employees use chemicals on a daily basis, make sure to add hazardous materials to your course. There is almost no way to overdue chemical and hazardous material training.
- Companies where there employees are regularly using fall protection should include this topic as an elective. Many injuries and deaths occur each year as a result of fall protection, therefore, it is important that your employees are properly trained.
- Bloodborne pathogens is another option to choose as an elective. In our experience, most employees would not require 30 minutes of BBP training because they have other positions which will provide these functions. Modern workplaces have dramatically reduced the need for general maintenance and construction to assist with BBP incidents.
- If you still have electives to add, you can pick Materials handling, machine guarding, and safety and health programs. Generally, these are topics which do not require more than 10 minutes a piece, but the elective has a 30-minute requirement.
Optional – 1 Hour
This last hour is aiming at teaching other general industry hazards or policies and/or expand on the mandatory or elective topics. The minimum length of any topic is one-half hour. Review each of the following items, and use this as a guide to determine which topics you will need additional training on:
- Injury reports
- Which hazards are your employees exposed to daily? weekly? monthly?
- Which additional training is needed?
As you can see, the requirements for the OSHA 10 certification and the OSHA 30 certification are based on the duration of the training. These courses are valuable for companies who want to quickly train their employees with the maximal level of OSHA training. It is important to remember that these courses are voluntary and may not meet your needs.
“The OSHA Outreach Training Program is voluntary. OSHA Outreach Training Program training does not meet the training requirements contained in any OSHA standard.” (SOURCE, page 1)
OSHA.gov
Would you like a more specific, engaging, and shorter safety training program than what you get with off the shelf training courses?
Would you like a training program which is packaged with all of the necessary content, and does not require additional company-specific training?
Contact us for a free consultation on your safety training needs.
