An effective training program is a vital investment for a company involved in high-risk and high-dollar operations. An operator who is safe and effective is able to increase the return on investment for a company. An effective operator is able to do the job correctly and quickly avoiding lost time in fixing mistakes or taking longer than necessary. A safe operator is able to avoid causing incidents that result in down time, equipment repair, injuries, death, lawsuits, additional inspections and higher insurance premiums. A company that invests in effective training will see improved productivity, reduced operator turnover, reduced absenteeism, and reduced costs.
The use of explicit outcomes in assessment and training provides a mechanism to insure that operators have the desired knowledge and skills. Each ADEPT assessment question is tied to one or more outcome. When an operator takes an assessment, this explicit tie in between questions and outcomes, makes it easy to identify areas of strength and weakness in terms of knowledge and skills. For example, results may indicate that an individual operator is strong at all of the core domains except for blueprint reading. Additional training in this area may prevent a costly mistake and prepare a strong operator for future leadership and management roles. The curriculum and assessments used by NAHETS are based on commonly accepted industry standard practices and terms.
Whether working with a new operator or a group of experienced operators, an initial pre-assessment provides a method for capturing their current level of knowledge and skills. The ADEPT Heavy Equipment Operator Pre-Assessment and Report provides an employer a snapshot of what their operators know and are able to do relative to stated outcomes. Following the administration of the test, NAHETS will develop a report that addresses trends across all of the operators assessed as well as reports on individual operators. This report can be maintained internally or shared with external shareholders as deemed advantageous. The written assessments may be administered over the Internet or by paper copy. The results will show a knowledge and skill baseline for the operators, which may be compared to future results following training.
Using the results of the initial assessment, a targeted training plan can be developed to make sure that areas of greatest concern are addressed in a timely and sufficient manner. NAHETS can work directly with the company to develop the training plan or simply provide the report to the company so they can develop the training plan.
In terms of training services, NAHETS offers training programs with qualified instructors who can teach the operators directly using our proven curriculum and training techniques; or, NAHETS can provide a train-the-trainer course to the company’s in-house trainers. Curriculum can be purchased through NAHETS if needed.
Upon completion of the training program, whether it’s a three to five day intense program, or a program that takes place over six to twelve months, the ADEPT Heavy Equipment Operator Post-Assessment will be administered to the operators. This will capture any improvement due to the training and identify any remaining areas of concern. A final report by NAHETS will be produced that captures the initial scores (baseline), the training that was administered (as available), and the final results (improvements). This information may be useful to external stakeholders such as general contractors, insurers, and inspectors.
An effective “assess-train-assess” program won’t be limited in scope to just the operators. It should pull in superintendents, engineers, management and others. This will assist in getting everyone on the same page, which will improve communication and set proper expectations. Strong communications and proper expectations will further reduce risk and improve efficiency.