5 Ways to Make the Most of Water Operator Training
If you are a water works operator, it’s very likely that your state or provincial authority requires you to have the proper level of licensing for the level of treatment plant or distribution system you work in. Licensing requires continuing education, and continuing education means trainers and training. All things being equal, trainers and training definitely is not. You as the operator have primary responsibility for the health and safety of the people who consume your product. As such, it is in every ones best interests to make sure your skills and knowledge is up to date.
The following list may help you to get the most out of your required training.
Make sure your training is relevant
If it doesn’t have something to do with your business, don’t take it. I’m sure you found a great course on business report writing that offers CEU’s, but is that really going to help you calculate your CT10 calculations when your SCADA system goes down?
Health and Safety is great, but…
It’s important to be up on all the latest changes to WHMIS or hazardous materials handling. I know that health and safety training is cheap and plentiful (because all industry needs it), but you cannot make it 100% of your CEU training requirements. In fact, many states and provinces mandate that you cannot have more than 25% of your yearly continuing education requirements as health and safety and for good reason. You are a water industry professional, and as such you need water industry training to stay on top of your game.
Price isn’t the only factor
Yes, this company has CEU training that is half the price of the other company. As a matter of fact, this company’s training is half the price of just about anyone out there. Why is that? I’ll tell you. Sometimes you can find relevant, topical training for a low, low price. But 9 times out of 10, if their price is just too good to be true, it IS too good to be true. Pardon my french, but the training sucks. It’s not well thought out, it doesn’t engage the student, you come out of it learning nothing and sometimes confused as to why you were there. Like any other product or service, the best product for your dollar tends to be not the cheapest, not the most expensive, but somewhere in the middle. Do your shopping, do your homework, and be wary of the superstore brand training.
STAY AWAKE!
Sometimes you just want to sit in the back of the room and zone out. Especially if you’ve been on the job for 25 years and think you know all there is to know. While your experience and wisdom are important, refreshers never hurt, and everybody can learn something new. Sit up, pay attention and you’ll be surprised at what you can learn.
Consider alternate forms of training
Much training is of the classroom type. Either you go to a classroom or have a trainer come to you. Consider trying alternate forms of training, such as online training. It offers many benefits. The right training site requires no minimum class sizes, is generally cheaper, does not require travel or travel expenses and you can start it and stop it when you need to. There are a few decent places around that you can find through search engines. One company I’ve tried and recommend is Nova Online. They are fairly new to the game and only have a five courses with more on the way, but the content is good, for format is good, the training is engaging and the price is fair.
Using the five recommended steps above, you can get the most out of your water operator training choices.
