We are very lucky at Didac that it is very rare that training ever gets cancelled when we arrive on site and for the most part when it does it is for an unavoidable reason (candidate sickness, equipment break downs etc). However recently we seem to have had a few issues that have caused training to be cancelled when our trainer has arrived at the site that were beyond our control and that were entirely preventable.
During the booking process it is stressed by our sales team that experience levels must be accurately communicated as there are minimum duration’s laid down by our accrediting bodies (ITSSAR and NPORS). However, it is not unusual to find out that candidates do not actually have the experience claimed (as one of our trainers experienced recently). Two of his three experienced telehandler operators had never in fact even sat on a telehandler or even any other kind of lift truck before! Problems like this only cause issues on site for us, the trainee’s and ultimately for the clients themselves.
Sadly, these issues seem to be caused occasionally because some companies see that the duration’s are based on experience and will exaggerate their trainees experience to try and reduce the amount of training days and therefore ultimately the cost. As I have always stated we at Didac provide quality training and which leads to good trained operators and if people try to skimp on training time we cannot achieve that level of quality. The more training time we get the more productive the training ultimately becomes.
If we arrive on site and the experience is not what we have been led to believe it will invariably lead to the need for additional days training or in some cases cancellation of the entire training.
The definitions of experience from NPORS are:
Novice Little or no experience
Experienced More than 6 months regular operating experience
Refresher Successfully completed formal training within the last 5 years
Assessment Only Previously trained, highly competent operator, operating on a regular basis
The other issue we occasionally get is a lack of facilities or even in some cases unsafe or even illegal equipment. Again, strict equipment and facilities information is sent out to clients at the enquiry stage which lays down the minimum requirements that we and the accrediting bodies expect. If those facilities are not provided we cannot conduct the training to the required standard and restricted training or certification is the best we can do (assuming we can even do that!)
One recent issue was where we were expected to train three novice telehandler operators in an area that wasn’t even big enough to turn the machine round, there were also no lifting heights available. Unsurprisingly the course was cancelled on arrival suddenly leaving us with a trainer with no work for the next four days.
Quality training needs the right facilities and the right starting point, make sure you give your candidates the best possible chance of not just passing a test but becoming good confident equipment operators by giving us the correct information right at the start. The interesting aspect to this is when the client quibbles about the fact that they will still be charged for the day if not the whole course as a result of circumstances beyond our control and entirely of their doing.
I have stated many times if you want quality training and good operators get in touch, if you don’t care about the training and just want a ‘piece of paper’ we probably aren’t your best option.