Maryland Community Newspapers Online
The United States Department of Transportation awarded the National Labor College a Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration grant for $1, 351,060 to fund an intensive program to train railway workers in the handling and transporting of hazardous cargo including dangerous chemicals and radioactive materials, according to a news release from the college located in the Hillandale area of Silver Spring.
The grant was authorized by the Hazardous Materials Transportation Safety and Security Reauthorization Act of 2005.
The college has already trained more than 20,000 railway workers and peer trainers in hazardous materials transportation and chemical emergency response since 1991. Workers are trained in OSHA and DOT procedures, different levels of response and worker protection through intensive instruction, drills and full-gear simulations as well as hazmat identification.
The grant expands the existing peer training network by focusing exclusively on training of trainers who will in turn train thousands of railway workers over the next 12 months.
NLC professor Henry Jajuga, who has more than 30 years of rail and hazmat training experience, will oversee the implementation of the grant. Key elements will include developing a train-the-trainer curriculum including specialized course materials and instructor guides, online courses materials, recruiting upwards of 160 students and implementing an aggressive national instruction program to exponentially expand the directing hazmat training regionally.
