OSHA 30: What It Covers

OSHA 30 is the supervisor’s version of the Outreach card: thirty hours of construction safety training aimed at foremen, superintendents and anyone with responsibility for other people’s exposure. Same program as OSHA 10, same rules about who can issue it, three times the depth.

*Learn the Trades is a free study resource. We are not a licensing body, an authorized training provider, or an exam administrator. Reading this page does not award any card, license, or certification. Always verify requirements with the issuing authority linked in the sources.*

What the 30 covers beyond the 10

The Focus Four hazards return in more depth, joined by a wider syllabus: managing subcontractor safety, hazard communication, health hazards (silica, noise, lead), fall protection systems in detail, excavation, scaffolds, cranes and rigging awareness, and the employer duties that make a supervisor legally interesting, recordkeeping, inspections, and what happens when OSHA arrives on site. The orientation shifts from “keep yourself alive” to “run work that keeps others alive.”

Who actually needs it

Anyone supervising: GCs commonly require the 30 for foremen and above, several jurisdictions mandate it for supervisory roles on covered projects, and safety-conscious clients read it as the minimum literacy for running a crew. For a tradesperson stepping up to running work, the foreman and superintendent rungs on every trade’s ladder in this KB, the 30 is usually the first credential the new role demands.

The same rules apply

Like the 10, the 30 exists only inside OSHA’s Outreach Training Program: authorized trainers and authorized online providers, verified at osha.gov. Federal cards do not expire; some states and employers layer refresher rules on top. And thirty hours of awareness training still does not make anyone a competent person under a specific standard, supervisors especially should know exactly where that line sits, because designating competent persons is often their job.

Same program, tripled depth: the 30 is for the person responsible

Where it bites

• Taking the 30 too early wastes it: with no crew to supervise, the management content has nothing to attach to. Take the 10 to enter the site; take the 30 when responsibility arrives.
• Assuming the card covers standard-specific training duties, scaffold user training, fall-protection training under the standard, it does not; those obligations remain.

Sources

• OSHA Outreach Training Program (osha.gov)