It is System Environment, Safety & Security’s (ESS) opinion that member Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) staff should provide an advisory and oversight role for student laboratory and shop safety trainings. Components of this advisory and oversight role include:

• It is EH&S staff’s responsibility to train the trainer so faculty and staff teaching laboratory and shop courses have the appropriate safety training and understand member rules regarding laboratory and shop safety, incident reporting, and EH&S contact information. SRM believes it is the individual laboratory and shop course instructors who are responsible for ensuring the safety of their students, but EH&S staff should make sure the instructors have been trained appropriately.
• EH&S staff should assist in creating and/or reviewing training material as needed. ESS believes online laboratory and shop safety training should be available through the campus Learning Management Software. EH&S staff should assist in procuring commercially available training software or creating appropriate training material. Additionally, EH&S staff should assist in ensuring the appropriate training is assigned to laboratory and shop courses. In addition to the online laboratory and shop safety training, SRM believes  it is the department/college’s responsibility to develop and maintain department and course-specific safety training content; however, EH&S staff should assist the departments/colleges when asked or when concerns are raised regarding training.
• EH&S staff should incorporate routine spot checks into their overall laboratory safety programs. Deficiencies should be documented and a process should be in place to report and address the deficiencies. ESS believes Department Heads, Deans, and Executive Leadership should support EH&S in ensuring compliance with student laboratory and shop safety training.