Plant & Works Engineering July/August 2022

30 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk July/August 2022 Skills & Training SPECIAL FOCUS I n many industry sectors, business success and continued growth is being hampered by skills shortages, particularly mechanical and electrical engineers, or by companies not investing in relevant training for their employees. In spite of this, most nationally recognised, accredited engineering training courses tend to take a ‘broad brush’ approach in terms of course content, with very little (relevant) practical assessment to gauge whether the delegates are competent at the end of the course. There is often a disjoint too, between what is taught and what the delegates are actually doing on a day-to-day basis in the workplace. Martin Smith, Director at Technical Training Solutions (Tech Training), told PWE that as a company, it recognised this issue around 20 years ago and began to develop its own training courses that were more focused on the needs of the engineering employers. A certificate of competence or attendance? Smith comments that Tech Training has been providing hands-on, tailored mechanical, electrical and instrumentation training to UK industry for more than 30 years. In the first 10 years, he explained that the company kept hearing engineering directors and training managers saying the same thing (and still do!): “I have a pile of staff training course certificates here, but I’m unsure which ones are actually competent and confident in that discipline?” He says that often, employers felt that a training certificate simply represented a “proof of attendance” and was no guarantee of staff competence. However, Smith highlights that Tech Training Competence, relevance, safety and understanding: the cornerstones of successful engineering training PWE spoke to Martin Smith, Director at Technical Training Solutions (Tech Training) about the need to get the most from your engineering training providers by ensuring their courses are relevant and engaging so that staff return to work as competent, confident and empowered individuals. courses are not subcontracted in; the courses are developed in-house by its training staff and taught by the same people. Training courses are standalone and are designed for smaller groups of between 8 and 10 people, on courses that typically run for 1-10 days. The company refine these courses to suit the employer, either on-site or at its training facility in Rochester, Kent. Smith highlights that the company focuses on the practical side of training, which runs in parallel with the theory, encouraging interaction with practical training rigs and a ‘learning by doing’ approach. The objective is to improve the delegates’ knowledge and understanding, which will lead to competency in that discipline. It doesn’t want to produce robots that have been taught about theory only – the company wants them to understand what and why they are being asked to do things in a certain way. Smith quotes an ancient Chinese proverb to capture this idea: “Tell me and I'll forget, show me and I'll remember, involve me and I'll understand”. Keep their attention This approach doesn’t simply mean doing three days of theory followed by one day of practical sessions. The two run in parallel with lots of crossover; they are intrinsically linked. In some cases, depending on the delegates, the company may even feel that the practical exercise should come first before the theory. The aim is to try and complete the training course with delegates having attained a certificate of competence in that discipline. Tech Training assesses the delegates during and at the end of the courses to check for this competence. This isn’t just a multiple-choice assessment – the focus of assessment is on the practical exercises on special purpose training rigs designed for that particular course. Its approach to the courses themselves and the practical assessments means that it has to limit the number of delegates on each course to 8-10 people. It doesn’t want delegates waiting to use training rigs. Typically, Tech Training would have four test rigs on a course and so it can administer assessments in parallel. With manageable groups of this size, its instructors are able to ensure that each candidate is learning in an effective and enjoyable manner. Martin Smith, Director at Technical Training Solutions