In the US OSHA has firm control over operator certification and a strict requirement for 3 year re-evaluations. They say nothing formally or informally in writing about trainers expiring in 5 years or any amount of years. You might find some compliance officer saying this or that in some part of the country, and consultants make statements like that all the time, but there is no document I have ever seen that says anything on the topic. Trainers that go through a class that has an expiration are getting that date due to one of two things. 1) The company doing the training wants to limit their liability to "X" years. 2) The company doing the training wants to get their money every "X" years. A trainer that is properly trained, stays current on any standard or interpretation changes and continues to train and stay active should not have a problem continuing to train indefinately. If they "want" to go back and get an update or refresher to include new materials are update themselves that is totally fine and maybe a good idea but it is DEFINATELY not required.

Australias requirements differ there is overall legislation ruled federally but make sure your away of state by state legislation. Each state has a dept of industrial relations that would be able to advise on this

that's "www dot osha dot gov /dcsp/products/etools/pit/index dot html", removing the white spaces and changing the word "dot" to a real "."

no changes on osh'a end really. Here is a great site for the latest on OSHA and lift trucks www.osha.gov/dcsp/products/etools/pit/index.html

the OSHA guidlines in the U.S. RECOMMEND re-training for site specific training every three years for operators and every five for a train the trainer instructor.

These are only recommendations. When I went through my schooling in an actual OSHA taught class, not an OSHA approved class with a random instructor. The trainer told me at that time there was nothing official in black and white for re-certification. This goes back about 12 years ago. You can go to OSHA's web site to see if it has been updated, I havent instructed in a few years so I havent kept up with it.

Hello Tony, I will try and answer some of the questions you posted;
1910.178(l)(2)(iii) & (l)(2)(iii) state that all an instructor has to have is the knowledge, training, & experience to be a trainer. I have attended several classes on Train-The-Trainer and have conducted several myself, but there is no where that it states how long your "certification" lasts. It is always good to go to as many training sessions that you can attend to keep up on the new training ideas and the information out there.

1910.178(l)(6) explains the procedures for forklift certifications, the employer is responsible for certifying a new driver. OSHA will not certify anyone, they will give you the proper guidelines that you must follow to train and certify, but it is up to the employer to make sure the certification phase is conducted.

1910.178(l)(2)(ii) talks about what training shall consist of & we use the following format:
Formal training (conducted by a classroom instructor)
Demostration Phase (conducted by a trainer on the floor)
Practical Exercise (conducted by the trainee)
Evaluation (conducted by the floor trainer on the trainee)

After all this is completed the evaluator signs off on all paperwork and then the proper paperwork is filed in the trainees training folder and a copy is sent to the training department and the training department issues the certification card that lists all equipment anad attachments that the new employee is allowed to operate.

I hope this helps with your questions.

The train the trainer qualification is a relatively new "qualification"

ITSSAR will accept and recognise a 5 day ITM. Instructional Techniques Module. ITSSAR will place the ITM candidate on its register and issue a Cat 1 badge number. This qualification lasts for 12 months where the candidate has to complete the final 5 days within 12 months to become a fully qualified Cat 1 Instructor. All ITSSAR instructor courses have to be monitored which means the monitor visit will be in the first 5 days of a 10 day course if an ITM candidate is on it

Hi Tony

I have to go for my re reg(Instuctors refresher)every 5 years..