OSHA is the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. It's a government agency that operates under the US Department of Labor. The mission of OSHA is to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance.

The OSHA Outreach Training Program provides workers with basic and more advanced training about common safety and health hazards on the job. Students receive an OSHA 10-hour or 30-hour course completion card at the end of the training. Learn more at OSHA.GOV. 

It depends. OSHA 10 and 30 are not required by Federal OSHA Standards. However there are exceptions to this for certain states, industries, and contracts. For example, in 2019 the California State Assembly instituted a regulation requiring any licensed cannabis business in California to provide a Cal/OSHA 30-Hour General Industry safety course to one supervisor and one employee. With this requirement in the CA Cannabis industry, it's the Cal OSHA courses that are required and not the Federal OSHA courses. It's also common for employers or certain contract authorities (especially with prevailing wage and public works contracts) to require OSHA 10 for workers and OSHA 30 for supervisors. Many states have their own state OSHA programs (as authorized by OSHA) and some of those states require OSHA 10 and 30 classes under certain circumstances. Each state can have their own rules, and it's best to check with the state OSHA for the most up to date information. You can also check out OSHA.GOV for more info. 

OSHA has a good explanation for this on their website. The gist is that Federal OSHA encourages states to operate their own plans, provides funding, and provides oversight. In most cases, in a state with a state OSHA plan, the state plan will take precedence in areas covered by both. In areas the state plan does not cover, then Federal OSHA provides coverage. Where Federal OSHA does not provide coverage, then it's the state that usually provides coverage. 

The categories General Industry, Construction, Maritime, and Disaster Site under OSHA represent different sectors of the workforce, each with unique hazards and corresponding regulations.

1. General Industry

General industry refers to any sector not classified as construction, agriculture, or maritime. It encompasses a broad range of industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and warehousing.

Found in 29 CFR Part 1910.

2. Construction

Construction covers work involving the building, alteration, or repair of structures, roads, bridges, and other infrastructure.

Found in 29 CFR Part 1926.

3. Maritime

Maritime includes shipbuilding, ship repair, shipbreaking, longshoring, and marine terminal operations.

4. Disaster Site

Disaster site work occurs in response to emergencies like natural disasters, explosions, or other catastrophic events. It often involves rescue, cleanup, and recovery operations.

Governed by a combination of 29 CFR Parts 1910 and 1926, depending on the nature of the work.

Often falls under the Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) standard in 1910.120.

10 Instructor Contact Hours of Training that meets the OSHA Outreach Training Program Requirements. OSHA ensures quality by enforcing topic, duration and delivery requirements and ensuring instructors have the requisite experience and training. 

The 10-hour training program is primarily intended for entry level workers. All outreach training is intended to cover an overview of the hazards a worker may encounter on a job site. Training emphasizes hazard identification, avoidance, control and prevention, not OSHA standards.

30 Instructor Contact Hours of Training that meets the OSHA Outreach Training Program Guidelines. OSHA ensures quality by enforcing topic, duration and delivery requirements and ensuring instructors have the requisite experience and training. 

The 30-hour training program is intended to provide workers with some safety responsibility a greater depth and variety of training. All outreach training is intended to cover an overview of the hazards a worker may encounter on a job site. Training emphasizes hazard identification, avoidance, control and prevention, not OSHA standards.

No, they are just not part of the OSHA Outreach Training Program. Most safety training is not OSHA Authorized. And in fact, it's important to note that Outreach Training is a voluntary program and does not meet the training requirements for any OSHA standard. The Outreach Training Program only includes OSHA 10/30 courses for General Industry, Construction and Maritime and the 7.5/15 hours courses for Disaster Site Workers - either by attending a course delivered by an Authorized OSHA Outreach Trainer or by taking a course from an OSHA  Authorized Online Outreach Training Provider.

However, scammers do exist. Only Authorized OSHA Outreach Trainers or Providers may deliver Outreach Training Courses that result in an genuine DOL Card. There are unscrupulous individuals and organizations that claim to offer OSHA Authorized 10/30 courses who are not authorized to teach and cannot issue you a genuine OSHA DOL Card. You can verify that a trainer has a current authorization at OSHA.GOV. 

That's a great question. 

Argument For: The OSHA 10/30 is highly regarded and bestows credibility on both the employee and the employer. If you frequently change employers, move from state to state for projects, or desire to compete for jobs with public works contracts then getting the OSHA 10/30 is a good idea. Beyond that, it provides a really outstanding foundation for safety training as either an employee or supervisor and goes a long way towards establishing a strong safety culture. At Blue Collar Bros, we are strong advocates for the Outreach Training Program, especially as OSHA affords trainers outstanding flexibility to tailor the course to their audience or industry without requiring advanced approval. 

Argument Against: For employees and employers, finding 10-30 hours for training presents challenges and tradeoffs. Authorized Online training is convenient and inexpensive but training quality and learning outcome concerns are valid. Although there are ways to combine instructor-led and self-paced online modes to improve training effectiveness, cost of delivery and convenience, OSHA does not currently authorize this type of hybrid training in their Outreach Program Standards. OSHA also has strict rules on device use for virtual training, class size limitations and student to instructor ratio requirements that further limit a training provider's ability to deliver cost effective, modern training within current OSHA program standards. Finally, the fact that Outreach Training does not meet the training requirements under any OSHA Standard begs a cost benefit analysis given the 10-30 hour time requirement. For these reasons, and more, you may well determine that 10-30 hours is better spent pursuing more targeted training. And, training providers have a lot more flexibility outside of the program standards. 

No. However, employers or contract authorities may have a recency requirement. 

They are separate courses. However, there is a little known provision that allows for an instructor to upgrade their prior OSHA 10 students to an OSHA 30 if their students complete an additional 20 hours of approved training from that instructor within 180 days from the start of the previous training. The student will have to surrender their OSHA 10 card prior to receiving their OSHA 30. At Blue Collar Bros, to increase opportunities for this upgrade, we design our training so that the first 10 hours of our 10/30 Workshops are the OSHA 10 portion and the last 20 hours are the OSHA 30 Upgrade portion. By structuring it this way, we improve opportunities for prior students to upgrade, saving them both time and money. For students who miss the 180 day window, we generally provide a discount for the full OSHA 30 if taken within a year of the OSHA 10. 

Only Authorized OSHA Outreach Trainers may teach these courses. Prosepctive Trainers must apply to an Outreach Training Institute Education Center to have their background reviewed. The applicant must have at least 5 years of relevant safety experience (or combination of experience and training/education) in their industry sector and take the required Standards Course and Trainer Course. 

If you have the experience, you should consider becoming a trainer. It's great for your career and it's great for any company to have an Authorized Trainer on staff. The minimum time for any block of training under program standards is 30 minutes. This means that with a trainer on staff, you could get all your employees OSHA 10 DOL Cards in one month if you conducted 30 minutes of training each day at morning muster. 

Visit OSHA.GOV on their trainer page. 

Outreach Program Standards afford significant flexibility to tailor the training to the audience or industry. If the inherent flexibility of the Outreach Program is insufficient to meet the training needs then an instructor can apply for permission to deliver Industry Sector Specific training that includes an OSHA DOL Card upon graduation. At Blue Collar Bros, our industry tailored training presents the study of safety within an industry context while staying within existing Outreach Program Standards. This accomplishes two things:

1. For students employed within the industry, it enhances retention and transfer of skills back to the job by providing industry relevant context. 

2. For students employed outside the industry or in adjacent industries, it provides a lens to both focus and view hazard identification and controls - the backbone of every effective safety program. 

Yes. Self Paced Online Courses are offered at several OSHA Authorized Online Outreach Training Providers. These courses offer a convenient and affordable path to an OSHA DOL Card. However, many find the learning outcomes to be poor and OSHA is considering changing their approach. In fact, they stopped accepting applications for new providers in 2019 and refused to entertain any proposals for program improvement or hybrid training. OSHA has stated the intention to replace the existing online training with a consortium model but according to the regulations.gov website on the subject, there has been no movement on this since Dec of 2019. Effectively, OSHA has created a protected oligopoly of online training providers and has restricted competition and innovation in this space since 2019 and has threatened to revoke trainer authorizations for complaints on this oligopoly and for seeking redress of grievance on other program matters. Blue Collar Bros cannot in good faith recommend OSHA Authorized Self-Paced Online Training except as a last resort to meet DOL Card related contract requirements or as a low-cost supplement to higher quality training from an OSHA Authorized or otherwise qualified trainer or training provider. 

OSHA allows Outreach Instructors to teach via a virtual classroom but there is a cap of 20 students without a proctor and 40 with a proctor. They may also visit the virtual classroom and require a one week advance notice of the class start date. For virtual training, students cannot use their cellular devices (phones) to attend the training and must be on something other than a cellular device (computer or tablet). Technology is a valid concern for virtual training. If attendees don't have a reliable internet connection, don't know how to set up their computer, can't connect audio, can't connect video, share screen, mute, use chat and navigate between windows things can get chaotic in a hurry. 

OSHA provides Outreach Trainers with Program Standards and Procedures. Among the things that the Standards and Procedures govern are the required topics, choices for elective topics, criteria for optional instructor designed topics, topic durations, break duration/frequency and the instructor code of conduct. Instructors are provided slide shows with the Introduction to OSHA topic having the most restrictive curriculum.. However, they are afforded a great deal of flexibility in presenting the required information and tailoring the training to their audience. They are also required to include supplemental materials and utilize interactive training techniques. 

If you have 5 or more years in General Industry, Construction or Maritime professional safety roles then yes, you can become an Authorized OSHA Outreach Trainer, OSHA will review your experience and probably conduct a brief interview. You will be required to take two courses to prepare you to present the material. One course is on OSHA Standards for your sector (example: General Industry) and the other course is a trainer course where you will have to demonstrate competency as an instructor and pass an exam on the program standards and procedures.