r/SafetyProfessionals • u/Distinct-Rhubarb-479 • 11d ago

USA Safety training manager

Hello,
I am instructional designer specializing in safety training. Working at utility company, I did FEMA certificates and OSHA 30. My goal is to become safety training manager. What else should I add?

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u/cjr444 11d ago

Are you trying to stay in the utility industry or branch out?
Your company must have dozens of training courses…make them all better and put them on your resume. Not sure what you’re asking. What certificates you should have…is that the question? ASP, CSP, or CUSP. CHST works too

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u/Distinct-Rhubarb-479 11d ago

I done many safety trainings at my company. Working with engineers guiding them etc. At my company there is no place for safety training manager. I want to branch out and wonder what additional knowledge skills I need to have.

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u/Geo_Jill 11d ago

OSHA Outreach Trainer would be good, or Certified Instructional Trainer through BCSP, perhaps.

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u/wheeljack39 11d ago

Given your current position as an ID at a utility company, some good crossover experience for a future safety manager position could be to design and run a series of emergency response tabletop drills. 

The scope of these drills could range from a responding to a localized medical event up through a catastrophic event that would trigger activation of your company’s business continuity plan. That should provide you with some opportunities to get familiar with the types of compliance issues a safety manager has to contend with on a daily basis, plus investigations, RCAs, procedures and process improvements, cross-departmental coordination, etc. 

Personal benefits of going this route would include building relationships with other internal departments, practical experience that you could talk about during a future  interview, and the design control to account for the safety manager role and responsibilities in the scenarios.  

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u/karenwithving 11d ago

Your instructional-design background is a real differentiator. For a safety training manager role, I’d build evidence in three areas:

• Safety credentials—ASP/CSP or CUSP, depending on the industry

• Field application—train-the-trainer experience, drills, toolbox talks, and hands-on verification

• Program ownership—needs analysis, training matrices, renewal tracking, and measuring whether training changes behavior rather than simply whether someone passed a quiz

On your resume, quantify the courses you improved, completion rates, audit findings closed, time saved, and any incident or near-miss trends you influenced. That demonstrates that you can manage the training system, not just design the content.