Cal State Dominguez Hills Named OSHA Training Institute Education Center

California State University, Dominguez Hills has been named by the U.S. Department of Labor as an OSHA Training Institute (OTI) Education Center. The University participated in a competitive 50 state search and was chosen as one of just eight new centers nationwide. CSUDH enjoys the distinction of being the only CSU campus to have achieved this designation.

“We are extremely pleased that OSHA has selected our University as an OTI Education Center for Region IX,” says CSU Dominguez Hills President Mildred García. “The designation is an acknowledgment of the quality occupational safety and health training we have been offering for many years. As an official OTI Education Center we look forward to taking a leadership role in ensuring the region’s employees are properly trained in workplace safety.”

The new center at Dominguez Hills will be administered by the College of Extended and International Education (CEE) and will provide training and education to improve employee safety and health throughout OSHA’s Region IX, which includes California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and the Pacific Territories. In addition, the university will provide online training as well as contract training for organizations nationwide.

Margaret Gordon, CEE dean, says that in choosing CSUDH, “OSHA was impressed by the convenience and accessibility of the campus location and the overall quality of our training facilities.”

Cal State Dominguez Hills has offered environmental and occupational health, safety and security training to the public for more than 15 years. By designating CSUDH as an OTI Education Center, OSHA recognizes the high quality of its training and entrusts the university to present its official curriculum.

The new director of the CSUDH OTI Education Center will be Scott MacKay. From 1989 to 1999, MacKay served as director of the CEE’s Center for Training and Development. He left in 1999 to take the position as director of the Region X OSHA Training Institute Education Center at the University of Washington. But MacKay returned to Cal State Dominguez Hills in 2006, to assume the role as director of the CEE’s extension programs, which includes the certificate programs in environmental and occupational health, safety and security.

“Our already excellent environmental and occupational health, safety and security curriculum will be enhanced because of our new status as an OTI Education Center,” states MacKay. “Right now at CSUDH, people can get engaged immediately in our free Cal/OSHA update sessions, the certificate programs and excellent online training. Now, because of this federal appointment, our students will also be able to participate in the authorized OSHA curricula and receive a certificate signed by a federal official. Plus, it makes us a national player in the field — ranking Cal State Dominguez Hills up there with some of the most prestigious training institutions in the nation, like Texas A&M and the University of California, San Diego, as a national presence in the delivery of critical curriculum. I really think this is a terrific opportunity for us and an honor [for the campus] to have been chosen.”

The eight new centers were selected through a national competition announced last July. Applicant organizations were evaluated based on the quality of their existing occupational safety and health training experience, overall continuing education training background, classroom and laboratory availability, and the ability to provide training throughout the region. MacKay emphasizes the fact that OSHA was looking for an ideal institution to offer their curriculum in the Los Angeles area, an area they feel has not been well-served by other OTI Education Centers.

Another real selling point for the campus is the very close relationship the campus has with Cal/OSHA, the state agency entrusted by OSHA with overseeing occupational safety for more than 95 percent of the workforce in California.

“Our state is the most progressive and aggressive of all 50 states in terms of meeting, and many times exceeding federal safety regulations,” notes Gordon. “California is one of just 26 states that has its own federally authorized state plan; the remaining states choosing to have their safety programs governed solely by federal OSHA statutes and regulations. Cal/OSHA professionals have long served on our program advisory boards and as instructors.”

MacKay believes that, “having an OTI Education Center gives our campus heightened visibility not only in California but nationwide,” and added that, “it’s very prestigious for local representatives in Congress to have an education center in their area.”

Gordon feels that the university’s new opportunity as home for an OTI Education Center is critical in assisting the local workforce, saying that “not only does this training help prepare participants to find new jobs in the growing safety and security professions, but existing jobs may be protected because of the perceived heightened value of an employee trained in the field of safety at an OTI Education Center.”

According to MacKay, nearly 70 percent of members of the California Society for Safety and Security Professionals are graduates of the CSUDH environmental and occupational, safety and security certificate programs and are employed throughout the Los Angeles basin. He explains that, “Many of these safety professionals are looking forward to the additional training offered through participation in the federal curriculum.”

An advanced Certificate in Health and Safety and several Train-the-Trainer designations are under development using the federal curriculum and will be launched shortly.

“Every company now has to have safety professionals on some level, monitoring this ever-growing body of law,” MacKay says. “Apart from providing new employment opportunities, our programs are also helping people just work and live safer, improving the overall quality of life.”

The OTI Education Center program was created in 1992 to complement the OSHA Training Institute in Arlington Heights, Ill., which is OSHA’s center for worker training and curriculum development. The OTI Education Centers provide training nationwide to private sector and federal personnel from agencies outside of OSHA.

“It is anticipated we will have students in every class coming from across our region as well as other states and countries” notes MacKay. “It’s going to be great for CSUDH that there will be a lot of visitors to our campus, not just from California, but from across the nation and the world.”

For information regarding OSHA courses currently available in Southern California as well as online, visit www.csudh.edu/osha. You may contact the center by e-mail at osha@csudh.edu or by calling (888) 4LA-OSHA or (310) 243-2425.

About the College of Extended and International Education -- The CSUDH College of Extended and International Education offers academic, professional development and lifelong learning opportunities through degree, certificate, and credential programs and non-credit courses. For more information on Extended Education programs, call 877-GO-HILLS, or visit the Web site at www.csudh.edu/exed.

- Keith Otterberg and Joanie Harmon

Photo above: Faculty and staff from the College of Extended Education (CEE) take pride in CEE's designation as an OSHA Training Institute by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Pictured, L-R: Tim Mozia, director of operations; Joanne Zitelli, associate dean, CEE;
Margaret Gordon, dean, CEE; Keith Otterberg, director of marketing; and Scott MacKay, director of extension programs and the CSUDH OTI Education Center. Photo by Joanie Harmon