Confined Space Training Courses

Start by selecting an online confined space course that matches your industry, assigned responsibilities, and training needs. Complete the required lessons and assessments, then access your course completion certificate after successfully finishing the course.

Online training can cover confined space hazards, procedures, and role-specific responsibilities. Employers remain responsible for ensuring employees receive any additional workplace-specific or practical training needed to perform their assigned duties safely.

Confined space training duration varies by course, role, and training scope. There is no single course length that applies to every type of confined space training.

For example, our 8-hour confined space training for construction provides eight hours of course content for construction-related confined space training. Other courses, such as confined space rescue training and confined space competent person training, have different scopes and durations.

Because online courses are self-paced, the amount of calendar time needed to complete a course may vary. Review the individual course page for current duration and course-access information.

Confined space training is required for employees whose work is regulated by applicable OSHA confined space requirements. The specific requirements depend on factors such as the industry, type of space, employee's duties, and hazards involved.

For general industry, review OSHA's general industry confined space requirements. Construction employers should review OSHA's construction confined space requirements.

Employers are responsible for determining which requirements apply and providing employees with the understanding, knowledge, and skills necessary to safely perform their assigned duties. 

The appropriate confined space course depends on your industry, assigned responsibilities, and whether you will enter, monitor, supervise, evaluate, or perform rescue activities involving confined spaces.

For example, construction workers with confined space entry responsibilities may need construction-focused training, while employees working with permit-required confined spaces in general industry should receive training applicable to their responsibilities under the general industry standard. Separate courses are also available for awareness, competent person responsibilities, and rescue-related training.

Your employer should determine the training appropriate for your assigned duties and workplace conditions. 

Confined space training can help you recognize hazards and understand the responsibilities and procedures relevant to your assigned role. Depending on the course, training may address entry, monitoring, supervision, hazard evaluation, or rescue-related responsibilities.

For construction, a competent person has specific responsibilities for identifying confined spaces and evaluating whether spaces are permit-required. Learn more about what OSHA means by a competent person in our blog.

Employees assigned rescue responsibilities need training appropriate to those duties. Explore our confined space rescue training options for course-specific information. 

A confined space is large enough and configured so an employee can bodily enter and perform assigned work, has limited or restricted means for entry or exit, and is not designed for continuous employee occupancy.

Examples can include certain tanks, vessels, silos, storage bins, hoppers, vaults, and pits when they meet the applicable definition. Learn more about what qualifies as a confined space here

Under OSHA's general industry standard, a permit-required confined space is a confined space that has one or more specified hazards. These can include a hazardous atmosphere, engulfment hazard, an internal configuration that could trap or asphyxiate an entrant, or another recognized serious safety or health hazard.

Requirements and terminology can differ between general industry and construction. Learn more about when a confined space permit is required here. 

Under OSHA's general industry standard, a non-permit confined space is a confined space that does not contain or, with respect to atmospheric hazards, have the potential to contain a hazard capable of causing death or serious physical harm.

The classification of a space depends on its hazards and applicable requirements, not simply its size or location. Learn more about non-permit-required confined spaces here. 

Confined spaces can contain serious hazards, including hazardous atmospheres, oxygen deficiency or enrichment, engulfment hazards, hazardous configurations, and other physical or environmental hazards.

Conditions can also change during work, which makes hazard evaluation and appropriate controls important. Read our blog on confined space asphyxiation hazards to learn more about the risks associated with unsafe atmospheric conditions.

OSHA confined space training requirements vary by industry and employee responsibility. Employers must ensure employees whose work is regulated by the applicable standard receive the understanding, knowledge, and skills necessary to safely perform their assigned duties.

General industry employers should review OSHA 29 CFR 1910.146, which addresses permit-required confined spaces. Construction employers should review the OSHA confined spaces in construction standard for requirements applicable to construction work.

Training must be provided before employees first perform duties covered by the applicable standard and when specified changes or deficiencies create a need for additional training. 

Employers are responsible for identifying applicable confined space hazards, determining which employees have duties covered by the relevant standard, and providing training appropriate to those responsibilities.

For permit-required confined space work, training should ensure affected employees understand the knowledge and skills necessary for their assigned duties. Depending on the applicable standard and circumstances, employers may also need to provide additional training when duties change, new hazards are introduced, or employee performance indicates deficiencies in the employee's knowledge or use of required procedures.

Employers also have responsibilities beyond training, which can include evaluating spaces and hazards, establishing required procedures, providing necessary equipment, coordinating entry operations, and making appropriate rescue arrangements.

OSHA does not establish one universal numbered system of confined space training levels. Instead, the training employees need depends on their assigned duties, workplace hazards, industry, and the applicable confined space requirements.

Roles addressed by OSHA's permit-space requirements can include authorized entrants, attendants, entry supervisors, and rescue personnel. Construction requirements also assign specific responsibilities to competent persons.

Awareness training is narrower than training intended for employees who will perform permit-space entry or other specialized duties. Our confined space awareness training focuses on recognizing confined space hazards rather than preparing employees to perform every confined-space role. 

OSHA does not establish one universal requirement to repeat confined space training every set number of years. Instead, additional training is required when specified circumstances indicate that an employee needs new or updated knowledge and skills.

Depending on the applicable standard, retraining may be necessary when an employee's assigned duties change, workplace operations introduce a new or previously unrecognized hazard, or there are indications that an employee's knowledge or use of confined-space procedures is inadequate.

Some confined-space responsibilities have separate recurring requirements. For example, employees assigned permit-space rescue duties may be subject to recurring rescue-practice requirements under the applicable OSHA standard.