Occupational Ergonomics Certificate

Certificate Overview

This Basic Occupational Ergonomics Certificate provides basic skills and understanding for anyone involved in supervising work processes, preventing workplace ergonomic injuries, and reducing employee downtime from ergonomic injuries. You will study and apply principles of ergonomics including:

• History of ergonomics
• Human anatomy and physiology
• Injury and disease causation
• Posture and biomechanics
• Work design
• Occupational stress
• Accidents and errors
• Ergonomic evaluation and control techniques

Colorado State University is proud to offer a certificate in the ergonomics field. The certificate program was created by faculty in the Department of Environmental and Radiological Heath Sciences, Occupational Safety and Health Section, Ergonomic Training Program. Students seeking certification in ergonomics will find this course helpful in the foundational areas and suitable for reporting 60 hours toward competencies identified in the Ergonomist Formation Model.

Benefits & Outcomes

You will be prepared to anticipate, recognize, evaluate, and control ergonomic risk factors associated with musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in a broad range of workplace settings to improve human-job interface, increase productivity, and increase worker safety while preventing injury.

Curriculum

This certificate is earned by satisfactorily completing one course which is organized in three major units and 30 modules with quizzes and exercises within the six-month scheduled period. You may enroll at any time as most students do not require the full six months to complete the work. The course may be completed ahead of the schedule but will not be extended.

Unit 1 – Principles of Ergonomics: factors that have been recognized to improve or degrade the human work experience; develop skills for anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of ergonomic hazards.

Unit 2 – Ergonomics of the Office Environment: the modern office environment, using computers safely, cumulative trauma disorders; develop skills for anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of ergonomic hazards unique to the office workplace to prevent cumulative trauma disorders.

Unit 3 – Ergonomics of Back Injuries: lifting safely, back disorders, work evaluation, equipment and design; develop skills for anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of ergonomic hazards unique to manual materials handling, aimed at preventing back injuries in the workplace.

Noncredit certificates do not produce academic credit nor appear on a Colorado State University academic transcript.

Required Textbook

The textbook is not included in the tuition and can be purchased at the CSU Bookstore.

Ergonomics, Work and Health (1991)
Pheasant, S.
ISBN: 0-87189-320-7

Instructor

David Gilkey, D.C., Ph.D., is a Certified Professional Ergonomist. He is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Education in the Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences at CSU. David is a skilled health practitioner with both a theoretical and practical knowledge base around workplace ergonomics. His areas of interest are diverse and include environmental and occupational human health, complimentary and alternative human health, construction safety and ergonomics, back pain and musculoskeletal pain syndromes among workers.

(970) 491-7138
david.gilkey@colostate.edu