Is my safety course eligible for the Express Course Directory?

What determines eligibility for safety training is not the subject matter itself, but whether the training is legally required.

One of the Express Program's core guidelines is that businesses cannot receive reimbursement for training they are legally mandated to provide for their employees. The most common example is training required by OSHA. Safety-related training that is not legally mandated can be approved for the Express Course Directory, provided all other course guidelines are met.

Courses that are NOT eligible for reimbursement

• Participants are required to complete the training in order to continue performing their current job functions.
• The training is designed to satisfy, in whole or in part, one or more OSHA standards. Common examples include OSHA 10 and OSHA 30, confined space entry, lockout/tagout, hazard communication, bloodborne pathogens, respiratory protection, asbestos awareness, and emergency response to hazardous chemical releases. A full list of standards by topic is available at osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber.
• The training is mandated by another federal or state requirement that attaches to the individual employee, such as FMCSA entry-level driver training for CDL applicants.
• The training prepares businesses to comply with a federal requirement that is being phased in over time, such as CMMC or ITAR. Because the Program cannot verify whether an individual applicant is already subject to the mandate, these courses are treated as mandated training.

Courses that may be eligible for reimbursement

• There is no legal mandate. The training reflects a voluntary industry standard, a customer or insurer expectation, or an employer's own best practice. Examples include IPC-A-620 and J-STD-001, ergonomics, behavior-based safety, safety leadership and communication skills, and defensive driving where it is not otherwise required.
• The mandate was newly implemented, roughly within one year of the date the course is submitted.
• The mandate is coverage-based and does not dictate which employees must be trained or certified. ServSafe is the standard example: a certified manager must be on shift, but the regulation does not name who that person has to be. Construction first aid and CPR can work the same way, where a trained responder must be available on site but not every worker is required to hold the certification.

The question we ask on coverage-based mandates is whether a genuine non-mandated population remains after the disclaimer below is applied. If some employees can still take the course voluntarily, the course can be approved. If the disclaimer would exclude everyone the course is designed for, the course is mandated training and cannot be approved.

Required disclaimer language

If your course is approved on the basis of a coverage-based or newly implemented mandate, we will ask you to add the following sentence to your course description as a condition of approval:

What to include in your course description

Reviewers cannot approve what they cannot see. Descriptions that move quickly through review usually state:

• The specific job functions of the W-2 employees the course is designed for.
• Whether the content is tied to a standard or regulation, and if so, which one.
• If the training is voluntary, a plain statement that no law requires the intended audience to complete it.
• The skills participants will be able to perform at work when they finish.

Where to direct businesses that need mandated safety training

Employers that need OSHA-required or otherwise legally mandated safety training should be directed to the SafetyWorks Training Grant, also known as the Workplace Safety Grant, administered by the Office of Safety at the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents. Employers can email wpsgms@mass.gov to be added to the notification list for the next application period.

Being ineligible for Express does not mean the training cannot be funded, it means a different program is the right fit.

Summary

Questions about a specific course? Email express@commcorp.org before you submit or submit a ticket through your provider account.