OSHA Training Is Now Online

OSHA Training is vital for both workers and employers. OSHA is in charge of maintaining standards for workplace safety in the United States, and safety training is a major part of their approach to that job. By requiring that all workers receive thorough, appropriate training for safety practices in their work environment, the total number of workplace accidents can be kept to a minimum.

This training can be in the form of specific equipment training, such as using a welder or industrial equipment in a safe and reliable manner. It can also be more about the environmental hazards of a specific work setting, such as what precautions to take around certain chemicals or machinery. Finally, OSHA safety training can even be more procedural – making sure that workers know their rights and what they should expect from an employer in terms of emergency shutoffs, sensible work hours and proper oversight. Together, these training programs save lives.

But they're also expensive.

That is why OSHA has authorized the use of online training in lieu of classroom training for most safety training programs. While classrooms are the traditional solution, they involve higher costs because a physical space is needed and a teacher must be in the same location as the students. Classrooms also involve scheduling difficulties, making it hard for employers to bring on new workers as soon as they're needed. And finally, classrooms typically have a high student-to-teacher ratio, raising questions about exactly how much of the training workers in classes really absorb.

OSHA Online Training, however, works to the advantage of both workers and employers. For individual workers, it's cheaper than ever to seek out special equipment and safety trainings in your field, so that you can approach the job market as a more qualified worker. For employers, it increases flexibility and reduces costs involved in providing workers with training.

Increasingly, workers and workplaces are moving toward online training. A new crop of workers are arriving on job sites better trained, with better documentation and cheaper refresher courses than ever before. For most forms of safety training, online learning programs are the way to go.