WHMIS Training & Education: What’s the Difference?

Alberta Bill 30 makes a distinction between education and training as does WHMIS 2015. Chemscape breaks down the distinction between both and how you can develop your WHMIS program accordingly.

What Does WHMIS Education Mean?

WHMIS Education refers to providing general knowledge of WHMIS 2015, this includes: 

• A knowledge of how WHMIS works.
• An understanding of the roles and responsibilities under WHMIS.
• An understanding of the differences between physical and health hazards classifications.
• An understanding of the hazard pictograms.
• Knowledge on what a supplier label and workplace label is.
• An understanding of the Safety Data Sheet and what information about the product you can find on it.

Education also covers knowledge on the hazards of the products you work with every day. This includes being able to answer the 5 Fundamental Questions on working safely with a hazardous product:

• What is the product?
• What are the hazards of the product?
• How do you work safely with it?
• What do you do in an emergency?
• Where do you find more information on the product?

What Does WHMIS Training Mean?

WHMIS Training refers to the site- and job-specific information to employees that will cover your workplace's procedures for storage, handling, use, disposal, emergencies, spills, and what to do in unusual situations. Employees who receive WHMIS training should be able to:

• Demonstrate the procedures required for safe use, handling and disposal of a hazardous product.
• Demonstrate the procedures required when the product is contained; for example, in a pipe, piping system, vessel, tank car, etc.
• Demonstrate the procedure to follow if the hazardous product may be present in the air and a worker may be exposed.          
• Demonstrate the procedures that must be followed in an emergency that involves the hazardous product.

Note: it is the responsibility of the supervisor or designated person to provide workplace-specific WHMIS training. 

To learn more, visit our WHMIS resources page to download our comprehensive WHMIS 2015 implementation checklist.