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Training & Continuing Education Trends in the Electrical Industry

Feb 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Beck Ireland, Staff Writer

On top of the increased formal training Commonwealth Associates is offering its employees, the company has started a mentoring program designed to impart the knowledge of its veteran workers to its new recruits. “That's probably one of the most effective forms of training,” DeCosta says.

Until recently, there was very little recruitment in the firm's energy delivery market sector. “In this business you either have gray hairs and 30 years of experience or you've got less than five years,” DeCosta says. “There's a big gap in the middle where we lost a whole generation. That's one of the reasons why training is so important to us because as an industry, we've not been doing it for 20 years. Now it's catch-up time. We've got to start building our people and focusing on their development. For us, it's a matter of bringing new people into the business and teaching them how Commonwealth does things and teaching core technical skills, too.”

Honing fundamentals, learning new skills, and retaining legacy knowledge are all part of deciding on the extent of cuts to your training budget. Focusing on what will keep you afloat in the present should be balanced against what will help you flourish once the recession ends. “You have to keep an eye on when this will end so you can position your organization to be well-equipped with the right skills and knowledge to take advantage of the upturn when it does come,” Avramidis says.

Sidebar: Recession Training for the Manufacturing Industry

In his article, “Recession Survival Tips for Manufacturing Industry,” author Don Fitchett advises the manufacturing industry that even in a recession, when budgets are tight, training is still important to secure the future of the industry, particularly as it deals with the retirement of the baby boom generation. Following are some of his solutions for stretching a training budget during tough times:

• Check with your local Private Industry Commission or employment office about receiving federal reimbursement under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which is typically managed and authorized by each state. Reimbursement often ranges between 60% to 100%.

• Send one or two to a workshop/seminar as part of a train-the-trainers program.

• Consider an online training course.

• For budgets less than $1,000, consider purchasing simulation training software.

To read the full text of the article, including more training tips, visit the Business Industrial Network's (BIN) Web site at http://www.bin95.com/Training_Recession.htm.

Source: Business Industrial Network

Sidebar: Whose Online Is It Anyway?

The U.S. Department of Labor recently recognized online training in apprenticeship programs as part of an ongoing effort to provide training opportunities that are more accessible, affordable, and available to more people. The incorporation of Web-based learning, including satellite broadcasts, may also be a way of enticing younger workers to take up the training.

Although many of the online apprenticeship courses are in the development stages, currently there are many required continuing education classes available online, particularly those without hands-on or more technical components. However, according to a recent survey of 300 mechanical, electrical, facilities, utilities, and plumbing professionals conducted by MEP Jobs, an Urbandale, Iowa-based online job board and resume bank, 41.4% of respondents indicated their company will spend its training budget dollars on classroom training, whereas only 19.4% report their company will spend its training budget dollars on Web-based training. “Obviously, you have to have some hands-on training for some of these things; there's just no way around it,” says Jeff Dickey-Chasins, VP of marketing for MEP Jobs.

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