TED Magazine - May 2017

tinuing education units that students earn by completing the course count toward the NFPA’s training require- ments for its two safety certifications: Certified Electrical Safety Worker and Certified Electrical Safety Compliance Professional. Credits earned in this course also apply to the New Jersey state require- ment that all licensed electrical con- tractors complete 34 hours of contin- uing education every three years. Dunn worked hard to secure War- shauer’s coveted position on the list of Approved Continuing Education Sponsors that is maintained by New Jersey’s Board of Examiners of Elec- trical Contractors. Warshauer Tech offers eight courses every year, all geared toward helping its contractor customers meet these state licensure requirements. Warehouse Risks The hazards that workers face inside electrical distributorships pale in com- parison to the dangers contractors face every day. Even so, there are hazards. Dunn recalled the incident that led Warshauer to implement a warehouse safety training program: “Ten or 12 years ago, we had an employee riding the blade of a forklift. It’s a common practice, although no one is supposed to do it. He picked up a light box, and when the forklift got to a certain height, there was some hiccup in the lift, and it threw him down. He landed close to a wire machine and could have been killed. Luckily, he wasn’t badly injured. We reported the inci- dent to OSHA, and when the in- spectors came through the building, they opened our eyes to all the things we were doing wrong.” OSHA discourages the practice of warehouse managers teaching new hires how to drive forklift trucks. “They could be passing on bad habits or teaching improper procedures,” Dunn said. OSHA recommended ForkliftSafety.com, a training vendor that supplied an OSHA-approved course for drivers, training and certifi- cation of course instructors, the exam, and a Certificate of Achievement for graduates. “We have an instructor on our pay- roll who is certified by ForkliftSafety. com to teach the course. It has a writ- ten portion and a practical, hands-on portion where we watch the trainee perform certain maneuvers in the warehouse where he or she will be working,” Dunn said. “Anyone who even thinks about driving a forklift has to complete and pass the course.”