What does the license certify?
A license is an administrative authorization linked to specific areas of occupational safety and health. In Colombia, Resolution 908 of 2025 establishes requirements and procedures for individuals and legal entities. This authorization must be interpreted in conjunction with training, scope of service, and any other applicable professional or health requirements.
This is not equivalent to the general term ” prevention technician” used in other countries. Nor is it sufficient to simply state that someone “has a license” without verifying its contents. The contracting company needs to check which activities are authorized and whether they correspond to the work it intends to commission, as well as verify the license’s validity and the license holder’s identity.
Who needs to review this requirement
Decree 1072 of 2015 establishes requirements for those providing occupational safety and health (OSH) services to employers or workers. Resolution 908 regulates how to demonstrate compliance with licensing requirements. These requirements must be analyzed according to the activity, profile, and specific circumstances, avoiding their automatic extension to any educational or administrative participation related to prevention.
The resolution itself distinguishes between education in general terms and the actions inherent to the management system. This distinction does not allow for transforming a technical service into mere training to circumvent requirements. It is essential to first define the actual content of the service: designing a system, conducting a specialized evaluation, and offering a general talk are not identical actions.
Natural persons and fields of action
For individuals, the authorized fields are related to the accredited profile and level of education, as per the technical annex. The application requires the corresponding academic and personal supporting documents. If the degree is from abroad, the applicable recognition or validation requirements must be reviewed, without assuming equivalence based on the similarity of the program name.
Competence in occupational safety and health also requires experience and skill for the specific task. Administrative authorization is necessary in regulated cases, but it does not eliminate the obligation to work within one’s professional boundaries. When an assessment requires a different specialty, the qualified and authorized person for that field must be involved.
Legal entities and service capacity
For legal entities, technical, administrative, asset, technological, and scientific conditions are reviewed according to the requested service. The resolution covers fields such as medicine, psychology, hygiene, safety, training, and actions related to the management system. The organization must have the resources and personnel to support the areas it offers, with the corresponding authorizations from its professionals.
The company’s premises, facilities, equipment, procedures, and service conditions must also be examined. A company’s license does not automatically make any member of its staff a professional authorized to provide all services. The contract must clearly identify who will perform the activity and what resources will be used, ensuring consistency between the offer, authorization, and actual execution.
Procedure, validity and changes
Applications are submitted through the web application provided by the Ministry, with the involvement of the relevant health secretariats. Resolution 908 establishes that the process is free of charge and valid for ten years, renewable if the requirements are met. Coverage is nationwide for the authorized fields, without eliminating the conditions related to locations and service provision.
Previous licenses remain valid until their expiration date as stipulated by the regulations. Changes to data, fields, or conditions must be processed as appropriate; not all changes constitute a renewal or restart the validity period. Before submitting an application, the official procedure should be consulted, and supporting documentation for the specific case should be prepared.
Practical example
In a hypothetical scenario, a company requests proposals to assess exposure to a chemical agent. One provider presents a valid license, but a review of the document reveals that the scope of services offered does not match the requested activity. The company requests clarification and verifies the authorization of the personnel, equipment, and technical scope before entering into a contract.
The process avoids confusing a valid document with sufficient authorization for any job. Once the appropriate service is selected, the contract specifies tasks, responsibilities, and deliverables. The company maintains evidence of the verification process and ensures that the actual service provided corresponds to the agreed scope and the management system requirements.
Relationship to the fifty-hour course
The fifty-hour course and its updates certify training in the Occupational Health and Safety Management System (SG-SST), but do not replace a degree or license when these are required. Resolution 0312 of 2019 establishes profiles based on size and risk; therefore, the design, implementation, and specialized activity requirements must be reviewed together.
A supplier or professional registry can record the license holder, license number, validity period, fields of expertise, and documentation of competence. This registry must be updated when individuals or services change. Keeping a copy at the beginning of a business relationship does not guarantee that all future work will be covered by the same authorization.
Common mistakes
The most common errors are using expired licenses, failing to review areas of practice, and attributing professional qualifications to a short course. Confusion can also arise between the license of the legal entity and that of the person conducting the assessment. Each requirement must be verified in relation to the service and the responsibilities assumed.
The license helps to regulate the provision of preventive services, but it does not replace the evaluation of technical quality. The organization must verify authorizations, competence, and the consistency of the work received. The central criterion is that each action be carried out by someone who is qualified and knows how to perform it, within the current Colombian framework and the scope recognized by the authority.
