National Environmental, Safety and Health Training Association
NESHTA members often help promote NESHTA membership by giving short presentations about us at events they attend. If you have this opportunity, please download this brief PowerPoint® to support your presentation.
Our Story
NESHTA started in 1977 with encouragement and support from the U.S. EPA, Office of Water. Officially named the National Environmental Training Association, Inc., NESHTA is a non-profit, international educational society dedicated to promoting excellence and standards in training.
Our original focus was on wastewater operator training, but in the 1980’s its mission expanded to include training and education for all environmental, occupational safety & health and emergency response training specialists.
NESHTA advocates competent training as a cost-effective tool for achieving regulatory compliance, productivity, and the protection of public health, workers, and our physical environment. NESHTA is the only network dedicated to EH&S training professionals and educators in academia, government, manufacturing, consulting and the military services.
Mission
NESHTA’s mission is to promote, support and advance the competency of training by its members through personal skills training, professional certification, the application of standards, and continuing education.
NESHTA’s Philosophy
NESHTA and its members believe that competent training is a critical component in implementing and maintaining effective SHE programs, particularly in the workplace. For the benefit of those we train, NESHTA members have a professional responsibility to improve their training knowledge and skills through continuing professional development, and by employing appropriate instructional technology in all training and education.
Main Programs and Services
Core Skills for Training Adult Learners: NESHTA̓s award-winning Designing and Delivering Effective Training skills workshop is designed for trainers in academia, consulting, government, industry, and the military. The course is uniquely appropriate for both entry level and experienced trainers who need formal training in the foundation principles of educating or training adult learners. Its focus is on training for worker populations, but suitable for any educator/trainer of adults. Experienced trainers find that the course is an excellent refresher in these principles, providing new ideas and techniques for use in their job.
This course is offered by NESHTA to groups, worldwide. It also is offered twice a year at the Georgia Tech Global OSHA Learning Center and once or twice each year at the University of Florida TREEO Center, as part of their curriculum. The course is under development for online delivery beginning in 2016.
Continuing Professional Development and Education: Corporate funding for trainers is greatly reduced from former years, making it difficult for many to attend continuing professional development events. Training refreshers and updates, traditionally available at these events, can no longer meet the needs of many credentialed professionals. As with NESHTA’s preparatory training (above), the association is working to offer a range of online short courses to meet this need.
Conferences and Workshops: NESHTA/PETE conferences are the only recurring national gatherings of specialists in EH&S training. We partner with the National Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (National PETE) for conferences, providing value for NESHTA members and PETE participants. PETE was founded in the 1980’s by the U.S. Department of Energy, the California Community College system, and NESHTA to help introduce U.S. DOE technology into the American workforce. Joint training specialist conferences (without trade shows), usually hosted by community/technical college, offer the educational benefits of much larger affairs at very modest registration costs.
Liability and General Insurance Program: Most NESHTA members qualify for participation in NESHTA’s independently operated general and professional liability insurance program. Available to members only, the program offers comprehensive insurance coverage availability at costs far below national averages. Available for U.S. members only.
Standards Development: NESHTA works to develop and promote competency standards for training in EH&S areas. NESHTA members and CITs led each of the subcommittees that wrote the ANSI/ASSE Z490.1 National Standard, Criteria for Accepted Practices in Safety, Health and Environmental Training. NESHTA technical specialists and CITs often volunteer to represent NESHTA on ANSI and ISO standards development committees.
Online Training and Webinars (under development): NESHTA is developing online training to include a full range of certificate courses for continuing professional education and CIT preparation study. We expect to begin offering two-hour webinars in the fall of 2015, and modular Designing and Delivering Effective Training certificate course in 2016.
Collaborative Partnership with The University of California, San Diego (Extension), Department of Education: NESHTA and UCSD partners to offer members a 10% tuition discount for their reasonably-priced Department of Education online courses. UCSD Extension offers an extensive list of courses on training and educating adult learners, including a comprehensive certificate program. For those looking to expand their horizons, courses also are available in designing and delivering online training.
Job Bank and Referrals: NESHTA maintains a register of member training specialties, allowing us to provide a valuable, free employment referral service to our members. Many U.S. companies ask NESHTA’s assistance in locating trainers and consultants for full-time or special projects in the U.S. and abroad. Trainers who are seeking work also use this service in their employment search. A job bank is on our website, and in some situations distributed by email.
NESHTA Network: Our website and emailed quarterly newsletter, NESHTANews, updates members on association news and events. It also includes downloadable training tools, selected from our publications. Members receive a 20% discount on paid publications and online training courses and webinars. NESHTA also sponsors a LinkedIn internet forum for the exchange of technical, regulatory and training information.