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Learning path · 3 courses · 11 h 10 min · v1.0

New Safety Coordinator — Learning Path

The first year of the job, in the order it actually arrives: the hazards, the paperwork, the chemicals

Start with course 1 See the whole path
Not OSHA-authorized training. Everything on this path is a free study aid. It does not satisfy any OSHA training requirement and nothing is issued at the end of it — no card, no certificate, no document of any kind. Your employer's training program comes first.

Almost nobody arrives in this job through the front door. It lands on an office manager, a foreman with a bad back, an HR generalist or the owner's nephew, usually with a binder and no handover. Within a month the same three things arrive: something happens on site and nobody knows whether it goes on the log; a customer asks for a TRIR and a copy of the written program; and somebody finds a drum with no label on it. This path puts the free courses on this site in that order — recognize the hazards that actually hurt people, then keep the records and build the rates correctly, then get the chemical program right. Everything is free, nothing asks for an account, and nothing is issued at the end: the competent person designations, the certifications and the written programs stay with your employer, where the standards put them.

What you will be able to do at the end

  • Recognize the hazard groups that produce most serious injuries, and name the standard that governs each
  • Decide whether a case is recordable, classify it correctly, and put it on the right form by the right date
  • Run the annual cycle: review, certify, post by February 1, submit by March 2, retain for five years
  • Calculate TRIR, DART, lost time and severity rates, and compare them against a benchmark that matches
  • Investigate an incident to its root causes and write corrective actions that name an owner, a date and a verification
  • Identify which written programs your site actually needs, and which records each standard requires
  • Build a reporting procedure that does not deter people, and an inspection rhythm that closes its own findings

How to use this path

  1. 1
    Take the courses in the order below. Each one assumes the vocabulary of the one before it — the first course explains what a competent person is, the second one uses the term without stopping.
  2. 2
    Do the 5-question quiz at the end of every part before moving on. If you miss two, reread that part: the quizzes exist to catch the chapters you skimmed.
  3. 3
    Finish each course with its 20-question final exam, then use the practice tests further down as a cold check a few days later.
  4. 4
    Your progress is stored in your own browser. No account, no email, nothing sent to us — and nothing to download at the end.

The path, step by step

Step 1 · Start here

Construction Safety Fundamentals

3 h 45 min · 4 parts · 16 chapters · 4 quizzes + final exam

Paperwork without hazard recognition is filing. Start with what actually hurts people, because every later decision — is this recordable, is this finding serious, is this corrective action worth the money — depends on knowing what the hazard was. This course works through the four hazard groups that dominate construction fatalities, plus PPE, ladders and the jobsite basics, and it does it with the paragraph behind each requirement rather than with slogans. If your site is a plant rather than a jobsite, the hazards translate: the standards change part number, the physics does not.

The four hazard groups that dominate serious construction injuries, and the standard governing each
Fall protection: the trigger heights, the systems and what a competent person has to do
PPE selection, the written hazard assessment, and who pays for what
Reading a paragraph number so you can look up any requirement in a minute
  1. Part 1 — The Focus Four4 chapters
  2. Part 2 — Personal protective equipment4 chapters
  3. Part 3 — Ladders and scaffolds4 chapters
  4. Part 4 — Jobsite basics4 chapters
Open “Construction Safety Fundamentals”
Step 2 · Then the paperwork that lands on your desk

Safety Management and OSHA Recordkeeping

3 h 55 min · 5 parts · 20 chapters · 5 quizzes + final exam

This is the part of the job nobody hands over. Take it second, because the first serious question you will be asked is whether a case goes on the log, and the second is what your TRIR is. The course covers the three tests of 1904.4, the closed first aid list, the day-counting rules, the 300, 301 and 300A, the February-to-March cycle, all four rates and how to benchmark them honestly, OSHA's four-step incident investigation, and the inspections and written programs underneath it. It also tells you where OSHA requires nothing at all — which is more often than most published material admits.

The three tests of 1904.4, and the first aid list that is closed rather than illustrative
The 8-hour and 24-hour reporting clocks, and the 7 calendar days to the log
TRIR, DART, lost time and severity — one formula, four numerators, and the hours nobody checks
Root-cause investigation that looks at programs rather than at people
  1. Part 1 — What is recordable: the logic of Part 19044 chapters
  2. Part 2 — The three forms and the annual cycle4 chapters
  3. Part 3 — Rates and what they are worth4 chapters
  4. Part 4 — Incident investigation and root causes4 chapters
  5. Part 5 — The program behind the numbers4 chapters
Open “Safety Management and OSHA Recordkeeping”
Step 3 · Then the program you will be asked for first

HazCom & GHS Fundamentals

3 h 30 min · 4 parts · 16 chapters · 4 quizzes + final exam

Hazard communication is the most cited standard in American workplaces, it applies to nearly every site, and it is the written program a customer or an inspector asks for before any other. Take it third because it is the one where the paperwork and the hazard meet: a written program, a chemical inventory, labels, safety data sheets and training, all of which have to match what is actually in the cabinet. Get this right and you have built one complete program end to end, which is the template for every other one your site turns out to need.

What 1910.1200(e)(1) actually requires in the written program, including the chemical list
The six label elements, the nine pictograms and the sixteen SDS sections
Training at initial assignment and whenever a new chemical hazard appears in the work area
Where the standard stops and the substance-specific standards of subpart Z take over
  1. Part 1 — The right to know and the written program4 chapters
  2. Part 2 — Labels, pictograms and hazard statements4 chapters
  3. Part 3 — The safety data sheet and its sixteen sections4 chapters
  4. Part 4 — On the floor: containers, storage and spills4 chapters
Open “HazCom & GHS Fundamentals”

Alongside the courses

Check yourself: free practice tests

Same standards, questions only. Every explanation cites the paragraph it comes from.

Practice Tests
OSHA Recordkeeping Practice Test — 29 CFR Part 1904
Twenty-five questions on Part 1904 with the paragraph behind each answer: the fastest way to find the gaps.
Practice Tests
OSHA 10 Construction Practice Test
The broad hazard-recognition check, covering the same ground as the first course.
Practice Tests
HazCom and GHS Practice Test
Labels, pictograms, safety data sheets and the written program, straight from 1910.1200.

Bring it to the crew: printable toolbox talks

Five-minute talks on one page, ready to print for a tailgate meeting.

Toolbox Talks
PPE Basics
A ten-minute talk to deliver in your first month, on something every crew already has an opinion about.

Do the math on the job

The numbers these courses talk about, worked out in your browser. Nothing you type leaves it.

Calculators
TRIR Calculator
The rate you will be asked for, with the case count and the hours shown alongside it.
Calculators
DART Rate Calculator
The rate OSHA's own inspection targeting is built on — worth knowing before someone else calculates yours.
Calculators
Severity Rate & Lost Time Rate Calculator
The day-based rates, which are the ones a return-to-work program actually moves.
Calculators
OSHA 300A Summary Helper
Totals the 300A columns, cross-checks them, and calculates the three rates from the same numbers.
Calculators
Injury Cost Estimator
What a case costs once the indirect losses are counted — the number that funds the corrective action.

The paperwork, filled in

Blank templates your employer still has to review and adapt.

Permits & Forms
Incident Investigation Report
OSHA's own four-step form, with no field for whose fault it was — the report you will need the first month.
Permits & Forms
Near Miss Report
The short close call report that gets you information before it costs anything, with an anonymous option.
Permits & Forms
Jobsite Safety Inspection
Sixty checkpoints with the CFR paragraph beside each one, and a corrective action log that names an owner and a date.
Permits & Forms
Safety Orientation Checklist
The first-day record, built on the only US rule that enumerates what an orientation has to contain.
Permits & Forms
Training Record Log
One sheet per employee, with the table of which standards actually name a training record and what it must contain.
Permits & Forms
Weekly Safety Meeting Agenda
An agenda that doubles as the minutes, with the state rules on frequency and retention compared.
Permits & Forms
Risk Assessment Matrix
A 5x5 matrix you set the words for, because OSHA publishes no scale and no acceptable score.
Permits & Forms
JHA / JSA Builder (Job Hazard Analysis)
Job hazard analysis built on OSHA 3071 — the tool that turns hazard recognition into a document a crew can use.
Permits & Forms
PPE Hazard Assessment Form (1910.132)
The written certification 1910.132(d)(2) requires, which is one of the few OSHA actually names.
Permits & Forms
HazCom Written Program Generator
The written hazard communication program of 1910.1200(e)(1), with the chemical list it has to contain.

Short reads that clear up the usual confusions

Blog
What Is an OSHA Recordable Injury?
The six triggers and the closed first aid list, in the form you will want open on a Friday afternoon.
Blog
OSHA 300, 300A or 301: Which Form Do You Need?
Which of the three forms takes what, and who is entitled to ask for a copy.
Blog
TRIR Benchmarks: What a Good Rate Actually Is
The published national and state rates, and the four things that have to match before a comparison means anything.
Blog
Which OSHA Written Programs Does Your Site Actually Need?
Which written programs your site actually needs, by paragraph — and the two that people think are required and are not.

Who this path is for: Newly appointed safety coordinators and managers, office and HR managers who have inherited the OSHA log, owners of small contractors and shops doing the safety job themselves, foremen moving into a safety role, and anyone preparing for the recordkeeping and program-management side of an OSHA 30 class.

Frequently asked questions

No. No card, certificate or credential is issued for any course on this site, and nothing here counts toward a training requirement. What you get is the reading in an order that matches the job, and a score on each quiz that tells you what to reread.

No. It gives you the knowledge to do the day-to-day work of the role and to know when a question is above your level. Professional credentials are awarded by independent bodies with their own experience and examination requirements, and they are not connected to this site or to OSHA.

Yes, with a translation. The hazard groups are the same and the physics is the same; the part number changes from 1926 to 1910 and a few specifics change with it. The second course is written from Part 1904, which applies to both, and names the general industry and construction paragraphs separately wherever the surrounding duties differ.

Because a recordability decision is a judgment about a hazard and an outcome, and it is much harder to make well without knowing what the hazard was. People who start with the log learn the boxes; people who start with the hazards learn the job.

Find out which written programs your site is supposed to have and which of them exist; read the last two years of the 300 Log and the inspection files; and ask three people on the floor what nearly happened recently. The third one usually tells you more than the first two.

The page adds up the three courses and shows the total. Each is roughly three and a half to four and a half hours of reading plus its part quizzes and a final exam, and it is self-paced — the progress marker lives in your own browser.

Yes. It does not cover the substance-specific health standards of subpart Z, crane operations, process safety management or anything requiring a qualified person or a professional engineer. Those need their own study, and in several cases they need someone who is not you.

Sources & references

Content checked against these sources — last reviewed September 14, 2026.

Not OSHA-authorized training. SteelToeTools is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by OSHA or the U.S. Department of Labor. This free educational content does not satisfy any OSHA or other regulatory training requirement, and no card, certificate, or credential is issued. Only OSHA-authorized trainers can deliver OSHA Outreach Training (10-Hour and 30-Hour) and issue DOL cards. Always follow your employer's training program and applicable federal, state, and local requirements.

By — Editorial team of SteelToeTools.com (published by LSEA SAS) Updated v1.0