Workplace safety credentials from Trinidad State College can turbocharge your career in the high-demand field of occupational safety and health.

Chris Matute makes a living saving lives by deactivating munitions. “If you’ve ever seen the movie The Hurt Locker, that’s the job,” he says. After several tours in Iraq, he retired from military service. He began humanitarian work in Vietnam, where unexploded devices from war years are rampant and often kill and maim civilians like farmers and particularly children. Today he consults for a private munitions removal company and is currently stationed in Hawaii, searching and removing munitions from residential areas that were once — 70+ years ago — military training grounds.

Matute is also a student in the Trinidad State College (TSJC) Occupational Safety and Health Technology Program (OSHT), studying for his Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree to further his career. The OSHT online college classes are accessible to students worldwide and provide occupational safety and health education to both entry-level career seekers and workers already in the field. The AAS degree at Trinidad State is accredited by the Applied and Natural Science Accreditation Commission of ABET (https://www.abet.org/).

While Matute’s work may be an extreme example of a career in workplace safety, as he faces high-risk situations virtually every working day, the safety field as a whole is about as broad as it gets. Professionals in the field work for hospitals, energy companies, construction companies, manufacturers, insurance companies, Amazon, and more with salaries ranging from $45,000 for those starting out to $170,000 or beyond for highly skilled, highly qualified workers. Median pay in 2019 for the industry was $70,480 per year.

But despite the wide range and character of positions in the industry, professionals in workplace safety tend to have in common a commitment to saving lives and gratitude for a career that is one of the most rewarding. Reports and surveys suggest that job satisfaction in the industry tends to be very high.

“For safety professionals, their ultimate goal is to send employees home to their families the same way they came to work. Workplace safety and health is a wonderful career if you want to help people, if you want great career prospects and a job that is highly respected,” says Jocelyn King, program chair and instructor for the Occupational Safety and Health Technology program at Trinidad State College.

A Career in Occupational Safety and Health

Occupational safety and health technicians and professionals advise, develop strategies, and lead workplace safety and health management. They establish risk controls and management processes that promote sustainable and safe business practices. They work to reduce and eliminate fatalities, injuries, occupational illnesses, and property damage. The job can entail conducting tests, assessing occupational health hazards, providing safety training, and more.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the profession is approximately 122,000 safety professionals strong, with employment opportunities across all safety-related roles projected to increase. The increase in demand for safety technicians is driven in part by employer recognition that workplace safety provides a significant return on investment, protects a company’s reputation, and can offer a competitive advantage.

Safety Technicians: Turbocharge Your Career With a Higher Degree

There are many paths into the profession, and graduates with the best career prospects generally attend ABET-accredited degree programs. ABET is a nonprofit, ISO 9001 certified organization that accredits college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, and engineering.

Approximately 85% of the students in the OSHT program at TSJC currently work in the field of safety and are seeking higher credentials to advance their careers. The program is a popular choice among working professionals due to its flexibility and low tuition rates — consistently at least 40% less than Colorado’s four-year colleges and universities. Accreditation is another significant plus: the OSHT AAS degree is the only two-year safety program in the world that is ABET-accredited (it is a two-year program for full-time students; it can take 3-3.5 years for part-time students to complete).

Flexibility and career growth were certainly on Matute’s mind when he chose the program at TSJC. “I wanted to advance in my career; boosting my credentials will help me rise into management. Taking this program is a great career move; the knowledge you gain in the program is backed up by your experience. Trinidad has also been great about understanding that people have full-time jobs and lives, and they work with you to make sure you are getting what you need out of the program,” says Matute.

Workplace Safety Breeds Competitive Advantage for Companies

When the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) — the main government body overseeing workplace safety — was first established in 1971, many in the industry initially viewed its regulations as burdensome. However, since that time, OSHA standards have had a dramatic effect on safety in the workplace. Fatality and injury rates have dropped markedly (it is estimated that in 1970 around 14,000 workers were killed on the job. That number fell to approximately 4,340 in 2009, and during the same period, U.S. employment has almost doubled).

At the same time, employers have come to recognize that worker injuries are not good for business, impacting employee morale and driving up insurance rates. Indeed, safety breeds efficiency, boosts productivity, and increases profitability. There are many examples of companies that have profited by putting safety first, and having open conversations about safety not only leads to safer workplaces but also encourages the flow of important and creative ideas from the workforce to management, improving operations overall.

As a result, many companies are extremely supportive of their safety workers receiving additional education; TSJC has partnered with companies in the construction, oil and gas, mining, manufacturing, and other industries to further credential working safety technicians.

Safety Careers for Active Duty or Ex-Military and the Benefits of Trinidad State

In many ways, a career in workplace safety and health makes sense for military and veterans; skillsets taught and valued in the military are also highly valuable in this career. Risk management is at the heart of military training. The rigor, organization, discipline, and eye for detail instilled during military training have, at their core, the objective of keeping soldiers and their teams safe. Similarly, occupational safety and health is all about risk management; for instance, identifying risks, collecting data, and analyzing safety incident reports.

Approximately 30% of those in the TSJC OSHT program are current or former military. Part of the “Yellow Ribbon” program (a provision of the Post-9/11 GI Bill that allows veterans to attend a private school for little or no out-of-pocket money), TSJC waives any extra tuition costs not covered by the government for qualifying students. This is one of the benefits that attracted Matute and many others who serve or have served to the school’s programs.

Occupational Safety Careers for Recent Graduates With more than half of safety professionals quickly approaching retirement age, there is ample room for new professionals to enter the field of safety. With high demand, good salary potential, and rewarding work, a career in safety can be an excellent choice for recent high school graduates or those just beginning their working lives.

Further, the spread of the coronavirus has necessitated an increase in workplace safety protocols and added a layer of complexity to the job that may lead to far greater demand for safety professionals than ever before. In an April 2020 Safety & Health poll of safety professionals, 86% report that COVID has impacted their work, and 30% of respondents report they are adding more staff as a result. Now is an excellent time to be considering a career in safety.

About the Associate of Applied Science (AAS) Degree and OSHT Certificate

In the field of Occupational Safety and Health, TSJC offers two options, an AAS degree and a certificate in OSHT. Both programs are available entirely online, and both are designed to deliver specific performance outcomes necessary for the success of the entry-level safety technician with an Associate of Applied Science degree in Occupational Safety and Health Technology. Though AAS degrees are typically considered terminal degrees that provide students with the necessary knowledge and skills for entry-level work, the well-trained graduates of the OSHT program at TSJC have been hired for positions where a bachelor’s degree was expected. Graduates have also transferred their credits to four-year degree programs.

Upon graduation from the AAS degree program, professionals will be able to:

  • Identify, formulate, and solve broadly-defined technical or scientific problems by applying knowledge of mathematics and science and/or technical topics to areas relevant to the discipline.
  • Conduct experiments or test theories and analyze and interpret data.
  • Function on teams.
  • Identify principles of professional and ethical responsibility for safety and health professionals.
  • Demonstrate effective communication skills.
  • Apply principles of safety and health through mentored supervised learning experiences.

The AAS degree meets the educational requirement to sit for the Associate Safety Professional (ASP) certification exam through the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP). The ASP is one of several certifications available from the BCSP.

Many students in the TSJC program take the required classes for the certificate and continue later to complete the AAS degree. The length of time necessary for completion of the degree varies, depending on individual students' situations, with factors including whether a student has any previous college credits that can be transferred; the number of credit hours, if any, a student can receive as Prior Learning Assessment Credit; and the number of credit hours/classes a student can register for and successfully complete each semester. The Prior Learning Assessment Credit option allows submission of a portfolio for OSH course credits to be awarded based on prior safety-related non-college-credit training and on-the-job experience.

Applying to Trinidad State College

Established in 1925, TSJC was the first community college in Colorado. With campuses in Trinidad and Alamosa, Colorado, the school provides an affordable and accessible education to students in southern Colorado and beyond. As with all the colleges in the Colorado Community College System, Trinidad State is an open-enrollment institution, which means everyone who applies is accepted. However, new students must have either a high-school diploma or a GED before enrolling in college classes. Some individual programs may have specific admission requirements; review the web page for the program you are interested in to see if this is the case.

Trinidad State academic advisors work closely with students to navigate all requirements, address financial aid needs, craft learning objectives, and ensure each student gets the most out of their experience. Completing an online application is an important first step, and the Trinidad State Class Schedule is an excellent resource for information on upcoming classes and schedules.

A Supportive Environment, A Commitment to Learning

“One of the things I have enjoyed most about my career in safety is that it is a profession demanding lifelong learning,” says program chair King, who is also a graduate of the program.

King has made it her mission to give back to the program that changed her life. Years ago, as a student and a single working mother, she found the professors at TSJC to be high quality in terms of the subject matter and also compassionate and supportive of students. She credits the school with giving her a foundation for a successful career, which has included spearheading the development of one of the earliest online/digital learning safety programs in the country.

Today, as chair of the TSJC program and also a student advisor, she talks to her students on the phone regularly and also corresponds by email or text. Her goal is to develop personal relationships with each, as she has done with student Chris Matute, so she can understand their life situations and do as much as she can to support them in their learning journey. And the professors in the program she manages strive to do the same.

“When people ask what program they should attend, this is the only one that I recommend. It is a well-respected program, by far the best, in my opinion. And the instructors are understanding and always willing to work with you; they are good people,” says Matute.

If you’re a student who wants to learn more about the benefits of the OSHT program or an employer who may be interested in improving their employees’ workplace safety skills, please visit the program page on the Trinidad State website.