The Griffin-Spalding County School System will include training from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), at least if Danny Raines has his way.

Raines, a retired Georgia Power employee and founder of Raines Utility Safety Solutions, LLC, does OSHA-authorized training. He said there is a collective effort between his company and other companies to set up OSHA safety training in public schools and vocational and technical schools.

“We talk to a lot of people and basically with unemployment at 10 percent, we feel like a better-qualified, safety-trained individual will stand a better chance of getting a job,” he said.

He and his associates have been to Cobb County and Paulding County, where they have gotten a pilot program set up. He said he would like to get something similar going in the high schools of Spalding County.

He said this training is required for many jobs, and job candidates who have this training are more likely to be hired.

The training involved depends on the field. OSHA has two primary categories, general industry or construction, as well as lesser categories such as maritime.

In the electrical industry, for example, requirements include fall protection, the use of flame-retardant clothing, minimum approach distances, clearances, grounding and hazardous energy control.

Raines said he cannot train all of the interested students himself but he can train teachers, who could then train the students.

“That way, they can teach the OSHA class and present the cards to them,” he said.

OSHA certification cards come in 10-hour or 30-hour categories. Many employers require these specific levels of training and Raines suspects OSHA’s standards will grow more stringent since 5,071 employees died on the job in 2008.