Plant & Works Engineering July/August 2022

Skills & Training SPECIAL FOCUS 32 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk July/August 2022 Smith emphasises that engineering courses are ‘designed by engineers and delivered by engineers’. He adds that staff are enthusiastic and passionate about what they teach and many have actually worked in the industry sectors they provide courses for. According to Smith staff also develop and prepare their own courses, which they can tailor to suit individual companies or adapt to suit the skills and knowledge of delegates. Take ownership of their machines Production downtime in the process industries – food and beverage processing, metal processing, chemicals and pharmaceuticals – can be extremely costly, so employers need to train their production operators to take more ownership of machines, including their maintenance and availability. The employers need to make their staff feel more motivated by providing the appropriate training that allows these individuals to feel more valued, improving their confidence and decision-making. Upskilling operators should then lead to improved productivity, reduced maintenance costs and increased machine uptime. With this in mind, Tech Training also provides training that encourages delegates to look at the equipment or machine in a different way when they return to work. These courses are designed so that delegates are more likely to relate all of the course content to their day jobs. They can apply the most up to date legislation and best practice when carrying out everyday activities at work and they’ll have a much better understanding of why they are carrying out each of these tasks. Smith says training is designed to empower staff by promoting ownership of their equipment and encouraged to look after their machines in terms of cleaning, maintenance and safety. Smith highlights that Tech Training often had feedback from employers who said that delegates on its courses had returned to work as “different people”. Suddenly, they began to ask questions, took more of an interest in their job, their colleagues and their machines, and even suggested new ideas to help improve machine efficiencies and workplace safety – an employer’s dream! Over the last 20 years, Tech Training has had much success with its approach to training. Smith says the only limiting factor on business growth has been the high standards the company sets on recruitment of its training staff. Despite this, he explains that it has grown steadily. In the UK, Tech Training has trained delegates from every industry sector. More recently, it has even expanded its training services outside the UK to countries such as Gibraltar, St. Lucia, Montserrat, Nigeria, Kuwait and Holland. Many of these countries have no national standards in terms of mechanical or electrical engineering training, explains Smith, and so look to the UK and its training providers for help. Britain is well respected for its engineering training and standards and Tech Training has certainly prospered from this and from its own approach to training. Its plans for the future are for continued growth and to continue to build a legacy organisation based on its four cornerstones of safety, competence, relevance and understanding. The company believes its approach to training actually has the best chance of keeping the attention of the delegates. What it avoids at all costs is the “death by PowerPoint” approach. Its delegates don’t have to listen to long lectures. Each subject is presented in its most straightforward context so that candidates can explore the essential issues and engage with the learning experience intended. For example, if candidates are learning about isolating three-phase motors, it has specially wound 40 Volt 3-phase motors custom-built for them so that they can connect the motor control gear and demonstrate that they can individually isolate the motors in a range of scenarios. This approach is made possible by constantly investing in real industrial equipment to help delivery of the courses. Tech Training’s ability to provide competence-based certificates is a direct result of its approach to the training courses themselves; short courses with clearly defined objectives, course programmes that make it clear what will be taught, employing top-quality instructors who engage the candidates in its 'learning by doing' approach, and assessing the candidates as they progress through the courses. Importance of the trainer Tech Training’s employees are its most important assets and so it has rigorous staff selection criteria, which is critical to the quality of the courses it provides. Its training staff must have a strong background in terms of their technical skills and expertise, but it also looks for people with a blend of interpersonal skills and a positive attitude to teaching.