Fall Protection Competent Person Duties in Construction (Federal OSHA) Online Training

This online course covers the competent person's duties under the OSHA fall protection rules for construction (29 CFR 1926 Subpart M, 1926.32(f), 1926.451(f) and (g), and 1926.453(b)(2)) and is written for foremen, supervisors and safety leads whom their employer may designate as the competent person for fall protection.

What you learn

• The competent person and the other roles
• Where fall protection is required
• Guardrails, covers, falling object protection and nets
• Roofs, leading edges and fall protection plans
• Personal fall arrest, positioning and restraint
• Free fall, clearance and swing falls
• Inspect and fit a harness
• Rescue and suspension trauma
• Scaffolds: the competent person and fall protection
• Training duties and records
• A final lesson listing what to review with your supervisor at your company

How it works

• You take the course online, at your own pace, on a phone or a computer.
• The final exam opens after at least 60 minutes of active study in the lessons.
• Each topic lesson ends with practice questions that do not count toward your score.
• The final exam has 25 questions drawn at random. You need 80 percent to pass, and you get 3 attempts.
• When you pass, you get a certificate of completion from M Squared Safety Solutions, Inc. The certificate expires 1 year after it is issued.
• This course is also available in Spanish: Deberes de la persona competente en protección contra caídas en la construcción (OSHA federal): capacitación en línea.

Questions

Call an M Squared trainer at 949-954-6581, Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM Pacific time. A trainer answers in English and Spanish.

Your employer's part

This online course does not replace the training your employer must give on your own job: site-specific training, and hands-on practice and evaluation where the rule requires them.

What this course does not do

This course does not make you a competent person, and it does not designate you as one. Only your employer can do that, by giving you the authority to take prompt corrective measures (1926.32(f)). Your employer must still give you site-specific training and hands-on practice on the equipment you use, and prepare the written record of fall protection training that 1926.503(b) requires. The course covers construction work only. It does not teach steel erection, cranes and derricks, stairways and ladders, tunneling equipment, tank and tower erection, or electric power line construction, which have their own fall protection rules (1926.500(a)(2)). It covers scaffolds only for the competent person's fall protection duties. A scaffold user needs the Scaffold User (Federal OSHA) course. This is the federal OSHA course. If you work in a state with its own OSHA-approved plan, your state may have different or more stringent rules. The course is online only.