OSHA to Offer $10 Million Plus in Safety Training Grants

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is planning to give away more than $10 million in safety training grants. The bold new grant program is being offered to nonprofit organizations,employer associations, labor unions and educational institutions. As with previous grants offered by OSHA, the purpose of this "free money" to help the aforementioned organizations provide the necessary training to their workers to protect against injury and illness.

When announcing the new grant program, OSHA explained that organizations and employers can use this money to train their workers on safety hazards in the workplace. Some people assume that injuries and illnesses only occur in for-profit businesses, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Many nonprofit organizations and educational institutions experience injuries and illnesses as well. And due to their limited resources, these organizations struggle to adopt the necessary safeguards to protect their workers from injury and illness.

With OSHA offering $10.5 million in grants, nonprofit organizations, schools, universities and other organizations will have more financial resources to invest in safety training for their workers. The Targeted Topic Training grants, for example, are offered to educational institutions for the purpose of creating and hosting classrooms that train workers on how to identify potential hazards in their workplace. The Capacity Building grants, on the other hand, focuses on conducting safety and health training programs.

OSHA's new grant program isn't a loan. Rather, it's money provided to organizations for a specific purpose -- to improve their safety and protect their workers from injury and illness. And unlike loans, organizations aren't required to pay it back. Assuming an organization meets the eligibility requirements for a grant, OSHA will provide it to them at no charge and without requiring them to pay it back.

"The grant program supports the creation of in-person, hands-on training and educational programs including the development of materials for workers and employers in small businesses; industries with high injury, illness and fatality rates; and vulnerable workers, who are underserved, have limited English proficiency or are temporary workers. The grants will fund training and education for workers and employers to help them identify and prevent workplace safety and health hazards," wrote OSHA in a press release when announcing the new grant program.

You can learn more about OSHA's new grant program here.