It could save a life in the workplace — and it doesn’t cost a thing.

North Idaho College will offer free safety training at Safety Fest of the Great Northwest Feb. 21-23 at the Workforce Training Center in Post Falls. This three-day, free event is a chance for companies to receive free safety training for their employees from some of the area’s best safety instructors.

“We’ve gathered a great group of instructors who volunteer their time,” said Becky Colotti, Health and Safety Training specialist with Hecla Limited. “We’re really reaching out to smaller companies who can’t afford to bring in safety instructors, and larger companies who don’t know who to ask.”

Colotti was one of Safety Fest’s founding partners. In the last 10 years, she said, it’s grown tremendously, from a few hundred participants a year to about 1,000. NIC’s Customized Training coordinates the event through the Workforce Training Center in Post Falls. The Customized Training program is also available during the rest of the year offering customized safety classes for employers at their convenience.

“If it weren’t for the Workforce Training Center opening their doors to us every year, we’d be struggling,” she said.

Safety Fest is an event for the whole community to educate people about safety issues both at work and at home. However, Colotti said, it’s not just locals who benefit from the training. Every year, groups come from Washington, Montana and southern Idaho.

The event will cover the majority of industries in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene area, including mining, timber, agriculture, construction and general industry. Participants can receive industry credentials from some classes, and every participant receives a certificate of completion for every class they take. New classes are added every year, based on the needs of the community.

Classes offered this year include MSHA refresher, CPR/first aid, forklift certification, fall protection, manufacturing safety, OSHA 10 for construction and general industry, RCW/WAC update, hazardous communications, warehouse safety, lead training, project management, Hazwoper, work-zone flagging, water safety, respiratory protection, workplace violence, OSHA record keeping, accident investigation, and more.

To commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Safety Fest, there will also be an opening ceremony featuring keynote speakers and a demonstration from Avista.

Workplace accidents can impact a company’s experience modification rate, or EMR, a number used by insurance companies to gauge both past cost of injuries and future changes of risk. The lower a company’s EMR, the lower their worker compensation insurance premiums will be.

An EMR higher than 1.0 (the industry average) can be an indicator of an unsafe workplace, which leads to higher insurance costs, and can make it harder for a company to bid on jobs. Additional safety training for employees can help keep a company’s EMR down.

“The lower that number, the safer employees are,” said Greg Rodriguez, of Ginno Construction Company. “It pays off in the long run.”

There were 130 workplace fatalities in Idaho between 2013 and 2016, and currently 29 for the year 2017. Many of these fatalities could have been prevented by employees having safety training. Because training will be offered for free at Safety Fest, Rodriguez said that companies have every reason to register their employees.

“Safety is important, not only in our jobs, but in our everyday life,” Rodriguez said. “It’s important for us to be safe at work and to come home the same way we left…. Too many deaths happen that affect not just the family, but the community, everyone who knew that individual.”

The value of free safety training, Colotti said, is “priceless.”

“There are a lot of resources out there,” she said. “There’s always something new. This is a great opportunity to get the information and training for free.”

To register for Safety Fest, visit www.nic.edu/safetyfest. Contact Colleen Hoffman, NIC Customized Training 208-769-7732.