Building Safer and Smarter
SBCA’s New BCSI Online Training
By Ashley Baker
The Building Component Safety Information (BCSI) Guide stands as the definitive resource for best practices in handling, installing, restraining and bracing structural building components. From safety messaging to critical installation details, the guide provides the construction industry with prescriptive solutions that reduce jobsite injury and risk and promotes consistency across the industry. The guide is regarded as an indispensable reference, but its effectiveness has historically depended on how well it was absorbed and applied in real-world situations. Recognizing the need to make BCSI’s content more accessible, engaging, and practical for today’s workforce, SBCA has released a new online training companion through the SBCA Academy.
This training course is not a replacement for the guide, but rather a supplemental resource designed to bring its lessons to life in an interactive, online format. Through a series of carefully structured modules that mirror the chapters of the printed guide, the training emphasizes the most essential and immediately applicable safety and installation practices. It allows learners – whether new hires unfamiliar with industry norms or seasoned professionals seeking a refresher – to gain knowledge in a way that is visual, engaging, and easy to access from anywhere. The course represents a significant step forward in making one of the industry’s most important safety resources available to a wider audience and ensuring that its principles are absorbed in a consistent, practical manner.
The decision to create this training stems from a simple but important reality: safety information guides work only if people use them. While the BCSI Guide itself is a comprehensive and invaluable document, the way people consume information has changed. In today’s fast-paced industry, few will sit down to read the guide cover to cover, yet it’s vital for those designing and working with components to understand the principles that keep everyone safe. By transforming the guide’s content into concise digital models, SBCA is ensuring that this critical information reaches people wherever they are: on jobsites, in break rooms, or on their phones at home. The training does not replace the printed guide but provides a parallel training experience that highlights especially pertinent information while pointing users back to the complete text for deeper understanding.
The modules themselves are designed with both clarity and usability in mind. Each one follows the structure of the BCSI Guide, making it easy for learners to connect what they see in the training to the material in the book. The training distills each chapter’s key safety practices into digestible information that can be completed in short sessions, making it possible to progress consistently or simply review a key detail within a chapter. It is important to note that the training is not exhaustive; it does not attempt to replicate every detail of the complete guide. Instead, it focuses on the essentials: the practices and principles that can have the greatest impact on keeping crews safe. Learners are encouraged to use the guide alongside the training, reinforcing the idea that the two resources work best together.
How to Access BCSI Training
This pricing structure ensures the training is affordable, accessible, and integrated with the BCSI Guide itself. It was intentionally structured to ensure that no company or individual faces barriers to accessing the content. For SBCA members, the training is available and completely free through the SBCA Academy, underscoring the association’s commitment to delivering value to its members. Non-members can access it for a nominal fee of just $5 for the complete training, available through the Education and Training page of the SBCA website. This model makes the training widely available while maintaining the guide as the foundational resource it has always been.
SBCA Members: Access the BCSI Online Training for free through the SBCA Academy. Simply log in, enroll, and begin learning.
Non-Members: Purchase the training for only $5 through SBCA’s Education and Training webpage.
The significance of these modules lies not only in their accessibility, but also in their potential to shape safer jobsite practices. Every day, crews are responsible for transporting and maneuvering components, erecting bracing, and installing systems that, if handled improperly, can create dangerous conditions.
“The BCSI training provides workers with the information that can prevent accidents before they happen,” says SBCA Education Committee Member, Tony Acampa. “By explaining, visualizing, and reinforcing correct procedures, the training reduces the likelihood of errors, protects workers from harm, and saves companies from costly consequences that come with accidents.” For employers, the training also serves as a standardized tool to onboard new employees, ensuring that every worker receives the same messaging and understands industry best practices from day one.
Beyond individual learning, the BCSI training also serves as an instructor development opportunity, or a training for the trainer. By providing a standardized, visual, and easy-to-reference framework, the training equips those leading safety meetings or jobsite orientations with consistent language and examples that align directly with the guide. It can also help bridge communication gaps with code officials, inspectors, and engineers, giving them a clearer understanding of how proper installation and bracing practices support both structural performance and safety compliance. In this way, the BCSI training not only informs individuals - it empowers leaders to teach, reinforce, and uphold best practices across the industry.
In the broader context of SBCA’s education and training initiatives, BCSI Training plays a pivotal role. The SBCA Academy has been designed as a comprehensive hub where industry professionals at every level can access training. From micro-learning modules that span myriad topics, to multi-level Truss Technician Training (TTT) courses, the Academy is building a layered system of education and training programs. Within that system, the BCSI Training stands as a cornerstone resource: a critical safety course that serves as an entry point for newcomers, a refresher for seasoned professionals, and a reinforcement tool for managers seeking to instill consistent practices across their teams.
The release of this training also reflects SBCA’s larger commitment to evolving with the industry. Education is not static, and the information captured in the training cannot be treated as a one and done. By delivering content in a format that can be updated and expanded, SBCA ensures that the training will remain current with industry developments, new technologies, and emerging practices. It also demonstrates an understanding of how the workforce itself is changing. With younger generations entering the industry, expectations for education and training are shifting toward formats that are flexible, visual, and available on demand. The online BCSI training companion responds to that shift directly, making sure one of the industry’s most critical resources remains both relevant and accessible.
“BCSI is the industry’s recognized guide for the safe handling and installation of structural building components. It promotes jobsite safety, and provides comprehensive temporary and permanent prescriptive restraint and bracing options to ensure the proper installation of components used in buildings,” says Greg Greenlee, P.E., SBCA Technical Director. “The guide is important to utilize because it reflects the industry’s current best practices and is a valuable resource for truss designers, building designers, building officials, framers, and component manufacturers.”
Ultimately, the BCSI Guide has always been about more than words on a page. It is about delivering information that will allow components to be designed, constructed, and installed in a way that is safe and effective. The new online training takes that mission a step further, ensuring that these lessons are not only available but also easily absorbed and applied. Whether accessed for free by members, purchased affordably by non-members, or bundled with the guide itself, the training makes it clear that safety is not optional - it is foundational to the industry’s success.
As the SBCA Academy continues to grow, the BCSI Training will stand as both a model and a milestone: a model for how to make critical resources accessible and engaging, and a milestone in SBCA’s ongoing effort to elevate the industry through education. Safety is not static; it must be built every day through consistent practices and continual learning. SBCA is offering every company, crew, and individual in the industry the tools to build not only safer jobsites but also a stronger, more professional future.
Learn more at: sbcacomponents.com/education-training