About 400,000 chemical sector employees may take online security training

The folks at the National Protection and Programs Directorate of DHS are offering voluntary online training to improve security at chemical plants in the U.S. and expect about 400,000 employees in the chemical sector to take advantage of this education program.

If those estimates turn out to be accurate, it would mean that approximately 47 percent of the 850,000 chemical industry employees nationwide would take the online training.

In a Federal Register notice the DHS directorate published on August 27, it estimated that it would cost the department a total of $16 million to collect information from a registration form, a training module and an online survey it will ask participants to fill out.

“Information is automatically collected in a computer database as a result of individuals engaging in the training,” explained DHS. However, it went out of its way to say that “personally identifiable information” about the estimated 400,000 participants will not be stored.

Further information is available from Amy Graydon at chemicalsector@dhs.gov.