NFPA 70E Training

[hosscartwright]

Has anyone ever used this vendor for training?

http://www.masterytech.com/productpage.php?product_id=erisesat

I am suspicious first of all with the training "time". The site says it meets NFPA and OSHA requirements for arc flash training. The course takes 30-60 minutes to complete!?! The last class I took was 6 hours to get the "certification". Also it states as a performance object you will be measured on your mastery of conducting arc flash hazard analysis. That is a dead giveaway to me as to the "legitimacy" of this course. Maybe I am slow but I know it took me longer than 30 minutes of an online course to grasp the concepts involved in calculating incident energy. What do you all think?

 

[shamsdebout]

Yeah it does seem a bit short, I e-mailed them to get some more information, basically told them "prove to me the legitimacy of this course.

 

[Zogzog]

Mastery is a joke, the same person giving this seminar may have doen an ergonomics class the day before and a fall protection class the day before that. No real knowledge, just a packaged course.

The NFPA 70E is very clear on the training requirements that need to be met for "qualified persons". I designed and presented 70E courses for 10 years, shortest one I ever did was 8 hours, usually it was 16 hours. Teaching arc flash evaluations was another 24 hours, my class for meeting the claims of Mastery would be a 40 hour course, and even then a student would not be a "Master" of conducting arc flash studies.

A good 70E course will be custom tailored to your companies needs, feild service and facility maintenence are very different type of 70E training. It should be tailored to cover the types of the equipment you have, to meet the 70E requirements.

Always ask for references and a resume or qualification summary of the instructor. If you are looking for some real 70E courses I can recommend a few very good ones in your area. Be careful, there are a lot of companies out there offering these courses that have no idea what they are doing or are just trying to sell you something.

One key point here is there is no such thing as a "Certification" for 70E training. It is the employers responsibility to ensure the class meets the 70E training objectives so the employer can deem the trained and conpetent person "Qualified". Only the employer can do that.

 

[shamsdebout]

Once of the representatives e-mailed me here is an excerpt.
"We actually have 2 courses. I am not sure which web site you found our information on but take a look at this. This combines both of our courses. This is by far our most popular course and it does satisfy the regulation. A Small company called Disney World bought for their staff . My contact at Disney happens to be on the board of the NFPA and it was very much scrutinized. We have quite a few other Electrical courses, that address other aspects besides electrical safety. "

I went on the website and saw "National Electric Code"
now I am not a stickler but I did question the authenticity after seeing that. I remember once when revising my resume I had National Electric Code, I am happy my manager pointed it out to me since then I have been careful to write it like it should be.

 

[Zogzog]

Disney does not have anyone on the NFPA 70E commitee, nor have they ever had anyone on the commitee. The commitee members are listed in the standard. I know about 10 of the members myself.

 

[humpy]

I would appreciate some recommendations for any good courses available in or near North Carolina. Thanks.

 

[Zogzog]

Humpy. What type of 70E traingin are you looking for? Is this for yourself or a group? Voltages and types of equipment involved? Field Service or for an existing plant? Is this for "qualified persons" training or do you want to learn how to do analysis? Lots of questions to recommend the right type of training.

 

[humpy]

Existing facility. The client asked for the study to be done to comply with OSHA. I do not believe I will be involved in staff training or labeling, just the field investigation, one-line diagram and calculations. They are a chemical manufacturing company. I believe everything is 480v or less, mixers, pumps, conveyors, etc. Thanks, sorry to the original poster for the threadjack.

 

[Zogzog]

So you are doing the data collection for an arc flash study?

 

[humpy]

Yes I am.

 

[Zogzog]

Ok then, I have the perfect class for you, Very good training company, the owner is a friend and is an arc flash guru. They are doing a class in Greensboro thsi October and it is focused on LV equipment, so sounds just right for you.

http://www.e-hazard.com/

 

[humpy]

Thank you very much, I will check it out.