No – no online course actually meets these requirements. Ultimately, employers are responsible for all hands-on safety training. Safety education is a three-phase process and seeks to ensure employees gain three different things: adequate knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Collectively these are known as (KSAs):
- Instruction to gain knowledge;
- Hands-on practice to gain skills;
- Evaluation of skills on the job to determine abilities.
Our modern online learning courses can be used to satisfy the knowledge component of the training. But, those topics that require hands-on practice using equipment to gain skills (for example confined space entry and fall protection), must be taught by an employer-designated competent person for the specific type of equipment the employees will be using on the job.
To satisfy the hands-on training requirement, employers will have their employees take our online training to satisfy the knowledge component, and then finish up the hands-on component of the training in the workplace.
Whichever method is used – online, instructor led or both – the employer is always held accountable by USACE/OSHA to ensure employees are provided opportunity to practice with the equipment in the learning environment to gain adequate skills.
After the employer is satisfied that employees have gained adequate skills, employees must be evaluated on-the-job to verify they have gained adequate abilities to properly use equipment and perform tasks.
To determine if a topic requires hands-on practice and demonstration of skills refer to:
OSHA’s Publication 2254, Training Requirements in OSHA Standards.
Guidelines and Requirements for National Institutes of Health (NIH) Contractors