OSHA 10 Requirements: Hours, Tracks, and Card Rules

The federal OSHA Outreach Training Program sets fixed requirements for what counts as a genuine OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 course, even though the program itself is voluntary. This page covers those fixed requirements - hours, tracks, who each level is for, and the card mechanics - separately from the state and city mandates covered on each state page that make one of these requirements legally binding for a specific worker.

How many hours does OSHA 10 require?

Providers cannot shorten either course to speed up completion - most track time-on-task and will not issue a certificate for a session completed faster than the hour minimum allows. A course advertised as "OSHA 10" that runs fewer than 10 hours, or claims to compress the material, is not a genuine Outreach course regardless of what it is called.

Which track do I need, Construction or General Industry?

OSHA Outreach splits into two primary tracks: Construction under 29 CFR Part 1926 and General Industry under 29 CFR Part 1910, and the track is chosen by the type of workplace.

Workers on an active construction, demolition, or renovation site typically need the Construction track, since general contractors most often require it as a condition of site access. Workers in manufacturing, warehousing, retail, or similar non-construction settings need General Industry instead. A Construction card does not substitute for a General Industry card and vice versa - each identifies its track on its face, and an employer requiring one will not accept the other.

Two additional, less common tracks exist: Maritime (split further into Shipyard Employment, Marine Terminals, and Longshoring, each under its own CFR part) and Disaster Site Worker, a distinct 15-hour course rather than a 10- or 30-hour one.

Who is the OSHA 10 course meant for, versus OSHA 30?

OSHA 10 targets entry-level workers with a baseline safety-awareness curriculum, while OSHA 30 targets supervisors, foremen, and safety personnel with a broader, deeper set of elective safety-management topics on top of the same core material.

Many general contractors set the split explicitly in their contract documents: OSHA 10 for every worker on site, OSHA 30 for at least one supervisory employee. See OSHA 10 vs. OSHA 30 for the full side-by-side breakdown of what each course actually covers.

Does an OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 card expire?

Neither card carries a federal expiration date once issued; a worker who completed the course years ago still holds a valid card unless a specific state statute imposes its own expiration on top of the federal rule.

Nevada is the clearest exception in this site's research: its construction OSHA-10/30 cards never expire, matching the federal default, but its convention-services cards expire after 5 years under state statute (see Nevada). If you need a replacement card because the original is lost, OSHA's own rule requires that the original course was completed within the last 5 years, and only one replacement is issued per completion.

How long does it take to get the physical card after finishing the course?

The trainer or provider that delivered the course has up to 90 days after course completion to issue the physical Department of Labor wallet card, though most providers report issuing it faster than that in practice.

Some providers advertise a specific faster timeline - one national provider explicitly markets official card delivery "as soon as 2 weeks" - but the 90-day window is the federal outer limit a reader should plan around, not the advertised best case. Confirm the specific provider's stated timeline on Cost or Approved Providers before enrolling if a deadline is close.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Regulator: U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).Facts on this page were last verified 2026-09-14. Next scheduled review 2027-03-14.