Notice

Safety Training Matrix

One grid, names down the side, requirements across the top, an expiry date in every filled cell. The value is not the record — it is seeing an amber cell four weeks before it turns red, while there is still time to book the class.

Records
Stencil print of a grid of squares with some filled in
A crew board in the trailer: the low-tech version of this grid.

Click any status cell to cycle it. Expiry dates are Chivo Mono so a column of them lines up at a glance.

Training and certification status
WorkerRoleOSHA 10Fall protectionConfined spaceScaffold userLOTO authorised
R. AlvarezForeman
T. OkonkwoCarpenter
S. ParkLaborer
Gaps

1

expired certifications

2

expiring inside 90 days

Three kinds of row, and they are not interchangeable

Row typeExampleDoes it expire?
Standard-specific trainingFall protection training, 1926.503Retraining on trigger, not on a clock
Outreach cardOSHA 10 / OSHA 30 constructionThe card itself does not expire; replacements only within 5 years
Program inspectionLOTO periodic inspection, 1910.147(c)(6)At least annually

Read from 29 CFR 1926.503, 29 CFR 1910.147(c)(6) and osha.gov/training/outreach on 2026-09-04.

Mixing them is the classic matrix failure. An OSHA 30 card in the “fall protection training” column looks complete and satisfies nothing: OSHA states that the Outreach Training Program does not fulfil an employer’s requirement to provide training under specific standards.

Retraining triggers beat renewal dates

Most construction training standards do not set a renewal interval. They set triggers: a change in the workplace or in the equipment that renders previous training obsolete, or an observation that an employee has not retained the understanding or skill. That is a harder discipline than a calendar, because it needs somebody to notice.

Caution

Put a “last observed” date beside the training date. A five-year-old certificate with no observation since is the gap an inspector reads as untrained, and it is the one a matrix built only on expiry dates cannot show you.

Cards: what the trainer owes you, and when

Trainers have 90 days after course completion to issue Outreach cards. OSHA does not keep records of Outreach classes conducted by authorised trainers, and a replacement card cannot be issued if the class was completed more than five years ago. Practically: photograph the card the day it arrives, file the image against the name, and stop relying on a wallet.

Which card fits which role, and what each one actually gets you on a jobsite, is compared in OSHA 10 vs OSHA 30.

What a GC audit actually asks for

Three things, in this order: the matrix, one certificate pulled at random to prove the matrix is not fiction, and the toolbox talk sheets for the last month. The first two check the record; the third checks whether anything reaches the crew between classes.

Keep the matrix where the foreman can update it, not on one laptop. A grid nobody can reach on a Tuesday morning goes stale in a fortnight.

Sources, with the date each was read

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