Developing Technicians

[Rjeffery]

First, please check out my profile.

I am thinking of starting a business teaching people to be engineering technicians in the civil discipline. This, I suppose, is marketing investigation. but what I really want to know what you think and feel about this type of venture.

I want to teach Quality Assurance/Control of concrete, soil, and structural steel using the ASTM, ASSHTO, AWS, AISC and the like along with Safety and Ethics as main topics.

My definition of an engineering technician is, of course, someone that acts as the eyes, ears, and hands of an engineer. NOT someone that makes engineering decisions in the field or laboratory.

I came to this after taking my Intro to Engineering class and finding that only the math was taught, not the ethics and economy of the engineering fields. I would like to teach the testing methods and the reasons behind the testing.

What do you (all of you) think and would you find this usefull to you and or your staff?

 

[nhyankee2]

It is a shame that no one has replied in almost a fortnight...

In my area there are firms that take any dunderhead off the street teach them 'three lifts, twenty five strokes, 10 to 15 slaps' and you are qualified concrete tech level "A".

When they discover that they can get a 25% pay raise by going to another firm, off they go.

If you are going to do this in my area I am sure you would run into the 'Engineering Mafia' who want these low paid people because they can bill them out at a 2.5 to 4.0 multiplier and sit in their air conditioned offices raking in the cash.

They don't want you to teach their techs anything because just as soon a the low paid slump and dumper learns that the grass is really greener on the other side of the fence, they will loose a 'good' tech (read 'money magnet')

Then they might get the idea that municipal inspections or special inspector for the city of (fill in the name of your choice) is a viable alt.

If you can get going, teaching documentation and safety is surely the key to successfull engineering technicians.



Big dig is done dug

 

[Rjeffery]

Thank you for your reply. Most of the engineers I've spoken to also indicate that documentation can make or break a situation, forestall claims and ease the way to getting paid on time.

 

[tamu]

Hi Rjeffery,
Please tell me fast where you are from ? I want to learn so much from you regarding engineering aspects specially testing for what you are planning to offer training .We can even join hands provided you are ready to struggle for the new venture in a new country-please contact futurestresslaboratories@hathway.com Or f_stress@vsnl.com regards - tamu