Do You Need a Certification to Become a Safety Manager?

While you do not need safety certifications to become a safety manager, you can go through Certified Safety Manager (CSM) training to receive a certificate. The National Association of Safety Professionals (NASP) offers a safety manager certificate course, which demonstrates that you’ve gained the knowledge and skills via training to manage safety programs.

What You Need to Become a Safety Manager

Safety managers often have a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, such as occupational health and safety. They have often worked for at least five years in a health and safety role, such as a safety coordinator or safety advisor.

While there aren’t safety manager certifications you need to obtain, you can receive certificates. The difference between certifications and certificates is what they represent — certifications show your competency measured against a standard, since you’ll only take and pass an exam to earn it. Certificates represent the completion of a training course and prove your level of education. 

What a Safety Manager Does

Because a safety manager is in a leadership position, responsibilities include:

• Inspecting workplaces 
• Recognizing and responding to hazards
• Conducting safety tests
• Understanding laws and staying current with updates
• Managing and implementing safety programs, policies, and procedures

As a safety manager, you will be expected to work unsupervised. Having leadership skills like communication, problem-solving, decision-making, and goal-setting abilities will also be valuable.

Certified Safety Manager Training

There are no prerequisites to take the CSM training course with NASP, but your previous work experience or education will form your foundational knowledge. With that, our CSM course helps reinforce your knowledge of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements and workplace safety concerns while covering how to interpret and apply regulations. You’ll learn training methods to use with your employees and how to investigate and document workplace incidents. 

We have both online and instructor-led courses, which take about 40 hours to complete. At the end of the course, you’ll take a comprehensive exam — if you earn 80%, you’ll pass and receive a certificate. You get two opportunities to pass. Then, every three years, you’ll take a refresher course and exam.

CSM is a foundational course, and NASP offers further live and online training courses if you want to get higher-level certificates, such as the Safety Professional Certificate (SPC). 

Sign up for CSM Training With NASP

Our innovative trainings combine engaging activities, review games, videos, and source materials to help you gain and retain the knowledge you need to become a safety manager. Sign up for our Certified Safety Manager course today.