Our certified safety trainers and OHS lawyers have selected the following 29 safety training courses that are required annual training no matter what Industry and jurisdiction you are in.

If you are considering online safety training, this is where you should start.

ESSENTIAL 29: Active Shooter Response

Active shooters are people engaged in killing or attempting to kill people with firearms. Situations involving active shooters are unpredictable and evolve quickly.

Designed with the assistance of subject matter experts from the law enforcement community, this online course is intended for any audience in any setting. Everyone can benefit from this course because active shooter events happen at more places than just schools and higher learning facilities like colleges and universities.

ESSENTIAL 29: Aerial and Scissor Lift Safety

An aerial lift is any vehicle-mounted device that elevates people. Some types of lifts include extendable boom platforms, vertical towers, and scissor lifts. Aerial lifts are useful for many jobs in general industry, such as cleaning, maintenance, or inspection. However, they are most commonly used when you are a painter, HVAC tech, or electrician.

Operating aerial lifts safely requires preventive maintenance and conditioning of machinery, as well as a lot of considerations before even turning on the key, because the majority of aerial lift accidents happen because of a lack of training or inattention.

ESSENTIAL 29: Back Safety and Injury Prevention

There’s incredibly good reasons to keep the back of your workforce by providing the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) to avoid injuries, and training employees in safe lifting techniques.

One of the most common health complaints around the world is back pain. Back pain hurts 80% of people during some point in their lives. The danger is higher for manufacturing, warehouse, hospitality and trades workers, and any other physically demanding job.

ESSENTIAL 29: BBP – Bloodborne Pathogens

In just one year, the CDC estimated that 20 million people globally acquired hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections from unsafe medical injections.

For your discretion, bloodborne Pathogens (BBP) are viruses that live in human blood and other body fluids, causing disease in people. There are many different bloodborne pathogens, including malaria and syphilis, but the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B (HBV), and hepatitis C (HCV) viruses, which can each lead to liver cancer, pose the most serious threat of workplace exposure.

In the workplace, transmission is usually through injuries from contaminated sharp objects that penetrate the skin, such as needles, knives, broken glass, or from splashes into the mucous membranes of your eyes, nose, or mouth, or through exposed openings or abrasions in the skin from scratches, cuts, bites, or wounds.

ESSENTIAL 29: Cold Stress

Cold environments force the body to work harder at maintaining its core temperature. While in cold environments, majority of the body’s energy is used to keep your internal temperature warm because the cold air, water, and snow draw away heat. Eventually your body shifts blood flow from the hands, feet, arms, legs, and outer skin to the core (the organs within the chest and abdomen). This makes everything besides the core to cool rapidly. Older workers often are at more risk than younger ones, since older bodies do not generate heat as quickly.

Employers and employees must plan ahead when working in cold conditions.

ESSENTIAL 29: Confined Space Entry – Permit Required

Confined spaces in the workplace are defined as enclosed or partially enclosed spaces of a size such that employees can squeeze entry for performing assigned work through a narrow opening; they’re cramped, tight spaces. Typically, you will only enter these areas to perform specific tasks before barricading them to prevent unauthorized access.

A company Permit-required Confined Space Entry Program is an overall policy and plan for protecting employees and contractors from confined space hazards, in addition to regulating entry into its permit-required spaces. Ahead of entering a permit space, your supervisor and/or the attendant must take every measures necessary to isolate the permit space and eliminate or control hazards. Such measures might include lockout or tagging of equipment to eliminate hazards.

ESSENTIAL 29: Driver Safety

Great training and caution are fundamental to keeping your mobile workforce safe.

The caution you exercise while driving combined with your vehicle’s condition determines your safety on the road.

ESSENTIAL 29: Drug and Alcohol-Free Workplace

The one way employers can begin to mitigate the impact of drug and alcohol abuse in the workplace is through Drug and Alcohol-Free Workplace programs. Drug and Alcohol-Free Workplace programs are meant to not interfere in anyone’s personal life, but to improve safety in the workplace. In high-risk work environments, risk and liability both rise when drugs and alcohol enter the workplace.

ESSENTIAL 29: Electrical Safety

“This lesson will provide an overview to prepare workers for working safely with and around electricity. However, this lesson will not address arc-flash hazards and controls, lock-out/tag-out procedures, or high voltage (220V or 440V) electrical safety.

Annually, there are nearly 230 electrical related fatalities. The National Institute for Occupation Safety & Health (NIOSH) discovered that, “61% of electrocutions occur in two occupation divisions: 46% among craftsmen and 15% among laborers. These two groups also had the highest rates of electrocution death: 1.4 per 100,000 workers each.

ESSENTIAL 29: Emergency Response

Besides the major benefit of providing guidance during an emergency, developing the plan has other advantages. You may discover unrecognized hazardous conditions that would aggravate an emergency situation and you can work to eliminate them. The planning process may bring to light deficiencies, such as the lack of resources (equipment, trained personnel, supplies), or items that can be rectified before an emergency occurs. In addition, an emergency plan promotes safety awareness and shows the organization’s commitment to the safety of workers.

The lack of an emergency plan could lead to severe losses such as multiple casualties and possible financial collapse of the organization.

An attitude of “it can’t happen here” may be present. People may not be willing to take the time and effort to examine the problem. However, emergency planning is an important part of company operation.

ESSENTIAL 29: Fall Protection

Falls happen too often to ignore, even to seasoned professionals in the construction industry. There is high potential for fatal injuries caused by falls from scaffolding, ladders, beams, and residential frames.  When the right safety precautions are taken, many falls are preventable, so why do falls occur so frequently? Everyone, usually to be faster, sometimes cut corners and work without fall protection equipment to accomplish little tasks, removing the systems when they present an inconvenience, or dispensing with them altogether. It is because of this that risk is invited and bad accidents can happen.

ESSENTIAL 29: Fire Extinguisher Basics

Fire extinguishers are one of the most reliable ways to put out fires in the workplace. Fire extinguishers are not a requirement, but if employers choose to provide them they must train workers in general fire extinguisher use to comply with OSHA standards. OSHA states that if employers expect workers to use the fire extinguishers themselves, hands-on training must be provided.

ESSENTIAL 29: Fire Safety

Having fire extinguishers strategically placed in your establishment is not a complete answer to fire safety. Your organization should have an internal system established to prevent and respond to manmade and natural emergencies.

Our Fire Safety Training Course provides participants with the knowledge necessary to prevent fires in the workplace and also focuses on the basic elements of fire prevention and protection.

ESSENTIAL 29: First Aid – Fundamentals

After completing this lesson, learners will be able to explain the initial responder’s responsibilities, identify the legal and ethical issues related to acting as an initial responder, and explain when it is appropriate to move injured patients and how it should be done.

ESSENTIAL 29: GHS Hazcom – Hazard Communication

OSHA estimates that the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) covers over 43 million workers who produce or handle hazardous chemicals in more than 5 million workplaces across the country. Annually, the GHS prevents over 500 estimated workplace injuries and illnesses and 43 fatalities, and thus results in cost savings to American businesses of more than $475 million in productivity improvements, fewer safety data sheet and label updates, and simpler new hazard communication training.

The Globally Harmonized System (GHS) standardizes how we communicate about chemical hazards in the workplace. As well, OSHA has adapted its Hazard Communication Standard to align with the globally harmonized system.

ESSENTIAL 29: Hearing Conservation

This course will help you recognize the impact of noise on your hearing, the warning signs of hearing loss, and the noise exposure limits that necessitate hearing protection. This course will also introduce you to the types of hearing protectors, including their benefits and proper use, and address your responsibilities in supporting your employer’s hearing conservation program.

ESSENTIAL 29: Heat Stress

Every year, heat stroke, a serious side effect of heat stress, kills more than 300 people.

If you are exposed to heat in your work environment—and if you work outside it is likely that you will be—then the risk of heat stress illness and injury needs serious attention.

Majority of people that are most affected by heat stress work in outdoor conditions, but it is easy to forget about those working indoors where there is insufficient building insulation, ventilation, or cooling, or with tasks where heat is generated or warm conditions are needed. Perhaps obviously, working outdoors presents greater risk depending on location; in the American southwest, summer is simply hotter and the climate is more arid than in other parts of the country, so risk of heat stress is naturally greater. Nonetheless, in many occupations it is crucial to be clear that heat stress can and does happen when working inside.

ESSENTIAL 29: Ladders Safety

Ladders seem simple, but the injury statistics indicate that it is one of the most abused tools we have. Especially in the domestic setting, accidents are frequently caused by overreaching or overextending from ladders to complete certain tasks, rather than doing the safe thing: climbing down and shifting to a better access point. Studies done by OSHA show that 100% of ladder-related accidents could have been prevented using proper safety.

There are many jobs that involve ladders, including cleaning, painting, changing light bulbs, accessing storage areas, reaching platforms, and more. Climbing up and down a ladder all day can cause fatigue, which is why workers will naturally want to maximize the effort they’ve spent to climb the ladder. Occasionally, they will stretch themselves or their tools to accomplish little jobs a little faster, which makes an inherently risky situation even more dangerous.

Ladder usage creates safety hazards like slips and falls, tip-overs, electric shocks, failure due to defects and damage, and failure from overloading. These hazards can stem from using a ladder that is too short, using the wrong type of ladder, not using a ladder when one should be used, reaching too far to the side, and not using it as intended.

ESSENTIAL 29: LOTO – Lockout-Tagout

OSHA estimates that failure to control hazardous stored energy accounts for nearly ten percent of serious accidents in many industries, and workers injured on the job from exposure to hazardous energy lose an average of 24 workdays. But OSHA also states that compliance with lockout and tagout procedures prevents an estimated 120 fatalities and 50,000 injuries each year.

To protect you from the serious hazards posed by the unexpected start-up or operation of equipment during repair or maintenance, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has established a Control of Hazardous Energy standard. It is commonly referred to as the lockout/tagout (LOTO), or energy isolation standard. This standard requires the application of markings and barriers that prevent unauthorized persons from energizing and operating equipment.

Energy in any form becomes hazardous when it builds to a certain level, or is released inadvertently or unexpectedly. Lockout/tagout refers to specific practices and procedures that safeguard employees from the unexpected startup of machinery and equipment, or the release of hazardous energy, during service or maintenance activities.

ESSENTIAL 29: Machine Guarding

Any machine that is not properly safeguarded can cause serious injury, such as crushed or severed fingers, hands and arms, eye injuries, and even blindness.

Once you have seen the gruesome result of a complex machinery accident, then you will appreciate the machine safeguards. Safeguards are the simple devices or methods that protect and make it difficult for workers to injure themselves while working on a machine. They may come in the forms of a shield or guard to protect from sparks, or a grate that keeps them away from the churning part of a rotary blade.

Taking shortcuts around machine safety protcols are a frequently cited cause for many machine related accidents, happening when workers decide to forego the normal protocol of working with a safeguard and bypass it altogether, leaving them with considerable risk of harm and injury. You must never ignore the engineered controls or safety features of machinery, they exist for a reason.

ESSENTIAL 29: Materials Handling

Manual material handling is the process of moving or supporting an object by physical force. Pushing, pulling, lifting and carrying are all examples of manual handling tasks. These tasks can be found in every workplace, whether you are in an office, on a construction project, a ranch or anywhere in between.

Manual Material Handling poses several risks to employees. Strains and sprains are commonly reported by employees who perform manual handling tasks. Backs, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, necks: they are all body parts threatened by manual handling tasks. The contributing factors for these risks vary, but include the weight, size, shape and stability of the object; frequency and distance of the move; and the body mechanics and overall health of the employee. Understanding the risk factors in your workplace from manual handling tasks is the first step in controlling these injuries.

ESSENTIAL 29: Office Safety

Although offices are not always thought of as hazardous places to work, an injury or illness that happens in an office can be just as serious and costly as that which occurs in any other workplace.

This course provides a practical introduction to office health and safety for managers, supervisors and employees, including health and safety committee members. It describes how to develop a health and safety program and introduces potential hazards in an office environment. The material includes steps that can be taken to address important office health and safety concerns, to prevent injuries and illnesses.

ESSENTIAL 29: Powered Industrial Truck Safety

Safety professionals agree, work with industrial trucks and similar vehicles present issues of serious liability and concerns that must be mitigated through workforce training and testing for competency. Automobiles are dangerous, and transportation accidents on the job kill employees everyday. The unique utility of these vehicles creates special risks. Commonly, they are used for tasks in work environments that are already considered high-risk, so they add to the list of cautions on worksites for many different professions.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers defines a powered industrial truck (PIT) as a mobile, power-propelled truck that can carry, push, pull, lift, or stack materials, and includes vehicles commonly known as forklifts, pallet trucks, rider trucks, fork-trucks, or lift-trucks. Vehicles excluded from this definition are ones used for earth moving and over-the-road hauling.

There are many conditions and situations in the workplace present potential hazards when and where PITs are operated.

ESSENTIAL 29: PPE – Personal Protective Equipment: Respiratory Protection

Every day workers perform duties that sometimes are not in the healthiest environments. Training workers on the proper ways of respiratory personal protective equipment (PPE) is important to protecting them against harmful inhalants.

ESSENTIAL 29: Sexual Harassment for Employees

Unfortunately, sexual harassment in the workplace is a prevalent problem. Both employees and companies are significantly affected by sexual harassment; it can cause a loss of productivity, poor performance, disruptive work environments, and loss of good employees and managers. As well, sexual harassment is against the law as it is a form of sex discrimination.

Sometimes it seems grey on what is and isn’t sexual harassment. So, what does it look like?

Sexual harassment is a crime that creates a whole host of problems in the workplace.

ESSENTIAL 29: Slips, Trips & Falls

This overview of slips, trips, and falls helps reinforce good behaviors for workers on how and where to avoid areas where these hazards can reside.

Recent statistics from the Congressional Accountability Office of Compliance indicate that employee falls are private industry’s third leading cause of workplace fatalities. Around 600 workers die from a fatal slip, trip, or fall, each year.

Believe it or not, most falls occur on flat surfaces like plant floors. Common causes are slippery areas, improperly stored items, foreign objects, and floor surface issues.

ESSENTIAL 29: Struck-by and Caught-Between

Multiple industries are inherently plagued by struck–by and caught–in–between hazards. Statistics show that these two types of occupational hazards are among the four leading causes of construction–related fatalities and injuries. Aside from being part of the “Fatal Four” in construction work, it’s no surprise that struck–by and caught–in–between hazards are also associated with the most frequently cited violations in the industry. That’s why the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) strongly recommends hazard recognition training for construction workers and personnel.

ESSENTIAL 29: Trenching and Excavation

This online Excavation Safety course explains OSHA standards related to safe excavation and trenching operations and discusses the requirements of 29 CFR §1926.21.

A trench, says OSHA, is a specific type of excavation, a human-made narrow surface cavity that is deeper than it is wide and is less than 15 feet wide. Excavating is the act of digging a hole in the ground, says OSHA, while trenching is the act of digging an elongated narrow excavation.

ESSENTIAL 29: Violence in the Workplace

According to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), workplace violence is defined as violence or the threat of physical violence against workers. It can occur at the workplace, or anywhere an individual is performing his or her job away from the work site and can range from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and murder.

Sometimes, it is domestic abuse that creeps into the workplace, or disgruntled current or former employees with an agenda. Other times, heated arguments between colleagues turn violent, or customers threaten and physically intimidate workers. Workplace violence looks different on each job, but there are common standards for deterring incidents of violence at work.

Training and education are key factors in responding to violence in the workplace. An employee trained in how to avoid and handle workplace violence will have a much greater chance of coming out of a violent situation unharmed.