TRAINING
Robyn Grimsley
The technician training area at Barloworld Equipment’ s Isando-based Learning Academy.
training capacity, so often even if they do want their operators to acquire a full qualification, they will do some of the training themselves and then ask us to complete the remaining sections of their training or the OEM specific training,” says Mentor. In addition to initial training offered to new operators or on the purchase of new equipment, they also offer refresher training.
The operator training courses are typically four to six weeks in length and cover both theoretical and practical aspects of machine operation. The first week is dedicated to the theory, covering machine safety induction, preoperational checks, onboard systems, start and after-start procedures, and operating techniques. This is followed by a written assessment, after which the trainees move on to the practical section of the curriculum, which lasts one to two weeks. Here, trainees are exposed to the practical side of machine operation using specially designed simulators. Once they have completed this section, they move on to the third and final component of the course: onthe-job training, in which the trainees actually move on to operating the machines they have been learning about.
“ After the four to six weeks of training is completed, we do the final assessment for certification, for which the pass rate( external and internal) is 80 %. At that point, if a person is deemed not yet competent, we identify the remedial action that needs to be taken before they can re-attempt the certification. So, for example, if there is a repeated error in a particular area, then the remedial action will be focused on addressing that particular area and error. Once the person has demonstrated that they can execute correctly, and the assessor or facilitator is satisfied that the issue has been addressed, they can then attempt the certification— there is no specified waiting period between certification attempts— and they will not have to redo all the sections, only the ones that they are not yet competent in. So, if they had a problem with a section of the practical training, for example, they would not have to redo the theory component.”
While the initial practical sections are usually done using the simulators, she says that if customers have a machine available, they can allow the trainees to practise on those machines in a safe environment. The simulators are mobile, and Barloworld Equipment occasionally hires them out to clients, or transports them out to a client’ s site for training purposes.“ Often the engineers on mining or construction sites want the operator certification to come from the OEM,” Mentor explains.“ Typically, for the operator training, we either do the training at our facility in Isando, or our operator trainers might go out to the customer’ s site, because it makes more sense to send one person out to site than to bring five or six people here. The trainers will then cover the curriculum requested by the customer, which typically includes the theory and practical, as well as the actual certification.”
Technician training
“ Our curriculum is aligned with Caterpillar’ s, and we have in the past and continue to collaborate with Cat by sharing learning materials, as well as hosting boot camps at least once a year,” Mentor says of the company’ s technical training offering.“ A lot of other countries are actually building on the qualifications framework we’ ve developed over the years, because it wasn’ t just written by a government official; it was written by industry for industry.”
24
AUGUST 2017