Migna Safety Solutions

Construction · Self-Paced · about 3.5 hrs total

Excavation Competent Person

Advanced · Course MIG-CON-302

The competent-person body of knowledge for excavation and trenching under 29 CFR 1926 Subpart P.

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This is a Migna Safety Solutions course with a Migna certificate of completion. It is not OSHA Outreach Training and does not include a Department of Labor card.

This is the deep end of trench safety — the knowledge an excavation competent person is expected to carry into the field every day: soil classification and testing, the design limits of sloping, benching, shoring, and shielding, the daily inspection routine, and the hazards that kill workers who survived the walls. Read this plainly: no course can MAKE you a competent person. Under OSHA, the EMPLOYER designates the competent person, based on training, experience, AND the authority to identify hazards and take prompt corrective action — including stopping work and pulling people out. This course teaches the competent-person body of knowledge and, on completion, issues a Migna certificate that SUPPORTS that designation. It does not create the designation by itself, and it does not grant authority your employer hasn't given you. Issues a Migna certificate of completion.

What you are buying

180 min
Enforced seat time
7
Modules
52
Lessons
13
Interactive exercises
51
Quiz questions

Seat time is enforced on our servers. The clock is calculated from signed progress events rather than in your browser, so it cannot be sped up — a certificate that states 180 minutes of training means it. The 204 minutes shown above is that gate plus the quizzes and final exam, which are not on the clock.

This certificate does not expire on a clock

The standard behind this course sets no fixed retraining interval, so we do not print one. Retraining is triggered by events instead — a new hazard, a changed process, or an observed deficiency. Your employer or insurer may set their own interval, which is a real obligation but not a federal one.

Written against 11 published standards

Every citation below appears in the course content and is checked against the current text of the rule before publication.

  • 1926.650(b)
  • 1926.651
  • 1926.651(c)(2)
  • 1926.651(h)
  • 1926.651(k)
  • 1926.651(k)(2)
  • 1926.652
  • 1926.652(a)
  • 29 CFR 1926.651(k)
  • 29 CFR 1926.652
  • Subpart P

What You Will Be Able To Do

The course is built to reach these, and the quizzes are written to confirm them.

  • State the two-part definition of a competent person and explain why the employer, not a training provider, makes the designation
  • Classify soil under Appendix A of 29 CFR 1926 Subpart P using at least one visual and one manual analysis, and apply the conditions that disqualify Type A
  • Select a protective system against the soil classification and depth, and identify which of the four design options in 1926.652(c) it rests on
  • Read manufacturer's tabulated data and state when a registered professional engineer is required
  • Conduct the daily inspection required by 1926.651(k) and state the findings that require employees to be removed
  • Apply the standard to field situations where production pressure and the correct decision conflict

What's Covered

  1. Module 1: The Competent Person Role & Soil Mechanics

    • What the Competent Person Is — and Isn't
    • Soil Classification and Testing

  2. Module 2: Protective Systems

    • Sloping and Benching
    • Shoring and Shielding

  3. Module 3: Hazards, Access & Program

    • The Other Trench Killers
    • Putting It Together on Site

  4. Module 4: Soil Classification as a Field Procedure

    • Appendix A, Applied to Ground You Are Standing On
    • Running the Manual and Visual Tests
    • Layered Systems and Changing Conditions

  5. Module 5: Protective Systems: Design Limits and Tabulated Data

    • The Four Options the Standard Gives You
    • Shoring, Shielding, and Reading Tabulated Data

  6. Module 6: The Daily Inspection, as a Routine You Can Actually Run

    • What 29 CFR 1926.651(k) Requires, and When
    • The Walk, in Order
    • Access, Egress, Water and the Hazards That Are Not the Walls

  7. Module 7: Worked Field Scenarios

    • Four Decisions Where the Answer Is Not Obvious
    • Authority, Pressure, and What This Certificate Does Not Do