While it is essential for rental technicians and engineers to have a sufficient level of expertise to keep equipment properly maintained and safe to operate, with the constraints of a daily job, finding the time for the necessary training can be challenging.
To solve this dilemma, two years ago Genie introduced the Genie® TechPro™ eLearning website –a flexible solution that has proved its worth in providing technical teams the ability to gain a higher-level skill set.
Accessible to Genie account holders free of charge, the Genie TechPro site features more than 20 “foundation” and “advanced” level theoretical training modules, each lasting from two to four hours. Covering a broad range of Genie products, as well as core skills such as electrics, hydraulics and wire rope inspections, a new course named “Genie Generic Systems on Booms” has recently been added to the TechPro menu. Focusing in generic Genie technologies such as load sense, hydraulic drive and control systems, this new course is one of five modules that are available in French, German and Spanish, as well as English. All future courses will be available in all four European languages.
As Phase 1 of a two-step programme, Genie TechPro training courses are designed for familiarisation purposes before attending instructor-led, practical training. “One of the key benefits of our Genie Tech Pro site is that it offers our customers’ technical teams the flexibility they need to learn anywhere, at anytime, with sessions that correspond to their level and schedule. If they want to go back over a subject, they can do so as many times as they need to. But this is not all, ” says Geert Hansen, Genie Technical Trainer and Training Manager, Terex AWP for the Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia region (EMEAR).
Each Genie TechPro module ends with a quiz test that enables users to evaluate their level. Neither an examination nor a Genie diploma, the test allows technicians and engineers to check that their level is good enough to feel comfortable when they begin the second phase of instructor-led, practical training.
As Mr. Hansen explains: “When the time comes for practical, instructor-led training, having already acquired the necessary theory thanks to their Genie TechPro eLearning experience, all participants begin at the same level. In addition to making training more interesting, we have found that this approach boosts group interaction. As a result, participants learn the hands-on skills they have come for more rapidly and need less time to cover a wider range of Genie product families.”
He concludes: “We are seeing an increasing number of customers embrace our blended learning concept. And to make sure that they benefit to the full from the time and costs dedicated to training their technicians and engineers, we have introduced the use of Genie TechPro as a prerequisite for our “advanced-level” instructor-led practical courses. With more than 300 Genie customers already registered online, we are expecting Genie TechPro user numbers to double in the EMEAR region over the coming year.”
