The CSP Credential and What This Course Is
What the Certified Safety Professional credential represents, who it is for, and the limits of independent exam preparation.
12 min
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What the CSP is
The Certified Safety Professional (CSP) is a professional credential awarded by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP), a United States certification body. It is widely recognised as a senior credential for people who manage safety, health and environmental programmes, rather than people who only carry out individual safety tasks.
Most candidates reach the CSP after an earlier credential. Many hold the Associate Safety Professional (ASP), which tests the technical fundamentals of the profession. BCSP also accepts some other credentials as qualifying for the CSP. The exact list changes from time to time, so check the current eligibility requirements with BCSP before you plan your exam date. The same applies to degree and experience requirements, fees and recertification rules.
Who this course is for
This course is written for experienced safety professionals who already know the fundamentals: hazard recognition, basic industrial hygiene, the main Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules, incident rates and the hierarchy of controls. If those topics feel new, start with the BCSP ASP Exam Preparation course, which teaches them in full. Here they are recapped briefly and then used.
The CSP examination asks a different kind of question from the ASP. It is less "what is this?" and more "what should the safety leader do next, and why?" You will be asked to design programmes, choose between imperfect options, judge evidence, defend a decision to management and handle the case the textbook does not cover. That is why this course is labelled advanced.
What this course does and does not do
Teach every domain of the current CSP examination blueprint at management depth; give you your own-style practice questions with explanations; show worked calculations; and help you plan your study.
A worked example of the shift in thinking
ASP-style thinking: "A worker is exposed to noise above the action level. What is required?" The answer is a fact: a hearing conservation programme.
CSP-style thinking: "Brenlow Engineering has a hearing conservation programme on paper, but standard threshold shifts keep rising at two of its five sites. Audiometric testing is done on time. What should the corporate safety manager examine first?" Now you must judge. Is the problem the controls, the hearing protection fit, supervision, the data, or the contractor that runs the tests? The best answer usually looks at the system, not only at the individual worker.
Who can award the Certified Safety Professional (CSP) credential?
A colleague’s question