Basic Orientation Plus® & Basic Orientation Plus - Refresher & Additional Programs

ARSC was created to address the need for uniform and consistent training of contract workers in the petrochemical plant environment. Our programs are now used in many industrial environments. We currently have twenty-three members within our organization and several of those have multiple locations. We anticipate continued growth with our membership in the near future as many membership inquiries continue coming in from across the country. This growth is important to organization and the industries we serve, but growth for the sake of growth is not our objective. Becoming a member of the Association requires that applicants meet a stringent set of requirements that are designed to assure the organization maintains the credibility and professionalism, which our customer base demands.

ARSC has two specific programs for general safety awareness training that are taught at the member organization locations, Basic Orientation Plus® and Basic Orientation Plus - Refresher.

The Basic Orientation Plus® reciprocal contractor safety awareness training program was designed to meet the classroom training requirements of the standards listed in the Code of Federal Regulations as enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) in the components it covers. This website contains a chart that highlights what is covered in each of the training components and what the employer must cover.

The actual methods of compliance with these standards will depend on the rules, regulations and procedures in effect at each specific refinery or plant worksite.

The purpose of the Basic Orientation Plus® orientation is to inform the new contractor employee of general safety rules, regulations, practices, and principles associated with the construction and contract maintenance/services industry, as well as, re-informing and updating the experienced employee. This course will qualify as an OSHA mandated orientation. The following topics are covered in this orientation: 

  • Hazard Communication (HazCom) and Chemical Safety 
  • Globally Harmonized System (GHS) 
  • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) 
  • Process Safety Management (PSM) 
  • Hearing Conservation 
  • Electrical Safety Related Work Practices for Non-Qualified Workers 
  • Lockout/Tagout
  • Respiratory Protection 
  • Elevated Work  
  • Fall Protection
  • Scaffolding
  • Ladders
  • General Rules & Emergency Procedures
  • Accident Prevention, Signs and Tags
  • Materials Handling and Storage
  • Job Safety Analysis (JSA), Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) 
  • Excavation, Trenching & Shoring
  • Emergency Action Plans
  • General Safety and Emergency Procedures
  • Fire Prevention 

In addition to these modules many of our members add local enhancements to the program for their specific area. After completion of the classroom training a validated test containing fifty questions is administered and each student must be able to answer at least seventy percent of the questions correctly to be deemed a passing score. This program consists of a newly revised training program, a student participant guide, an instructor’s manual, and a validated bank of test questions and test design template. The total training time for the Basic Orientation Plus® program is approximately five and one half hours including the test.

We also offer an ARSC Study guide as optional curriculum for members that would like to provide an extra resource to those students that may need some extra assistance in preparation for the program or would like some additional information. You may find a copy of this Study Guide in PDF format on this ARSC website and also on many of the ARSC member websites.

Our program is designed to be instructor lead for the first time worker and there is a refresher program that may be administered by an instructor or in computer based training (CBT) format on an annual basis. The Basic Orientation Plus - Refresher program takes approximately two hours to complete in CBT format.

Both of these programs are reviewed for revisions needed on a regular basis by the ARSC Curriculum Committee.

I’m sure you are aware that these programs are not meant to relieve contract companies of all training responsibilities. There is always some job specific information that cannot be covered in a classroom or computer based training and must be covered in the field.

We currently have additional programs to be considered for reciprocity among our membership and anticipate more programs to be reciprocal in the future. These programs are: Benzene, Bloodborne Pathogens, Confined Space, Electrical Safety, Elevated Work, HAZCOM, Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S), Hearing Conservation, Lockout-Tagout, PSM, Respiratory Protection, Line of Fire, FireWatch, Protect Watch.

The ARSC Curriculum Committee is continually working on reviewing, updating and adding additional programs.