Professional Development

[KillBill7]

I understand nothing beats the experience but I am curious to know if you guys have taken any supplementary courses/training post-graduation which you think were really worth the cost and actually helped you gain the desired knowledge.
I personally like to learn more on topics like renewable energy integration, HVDC & FACTS, and power system economics but haven’t had a chance yet to work on any project which covers any of these areas.

 

[Palletjack]

SEL university is great. Expensive, but great.

 

[thermionic1]

I'll second the SEL training. Just had RTAC training last week. Mine was somewhat local, but 3 days was $1800, including lunch, a serial-USB cable and training materials. That's $75/hr for 3 instructors.

The training material they supplied was a bit outdated and they promised to fix that. I just received shipping confirmation on the latest bound training materials.

 

[DM61850]

Honestly the most bang per buck for me has been in this order:

1. Try to find old people to talk shop with, online or offline. If you can't find people to talk shop with, you are only going to grow with the work you are given.
2. Being part of an industrial planning or standards development group.
3. Read and be familiar with industrial standards and new revisions.
4. Taking a power outreach class through a program like at University of Idaho or Michigan Tech. SEL workshops are great but they are expensive in comparison to a 3 month class.
5. Attending a IEEE or relaying conference. This is hard though because employers don't like you not working.
6. Reading your trade magazines that are part of the IEEE PES and Industrial Automation working groups. The archives for these magazines are wonderful when you are assigned to all of a sudden be the expert on something. A lot of stuff is put out by these groups that is focused on application and is not just academic. If you want to read about FACTS devices or anything specific, you'll likely find it in their archives.

 

[iceworm]

I work under US law and NEC. If you are not, substitute what fits.
I'm a field dog, not a designer. And I'm getting ready to retire after 50 years of this. Could be there is much better, more current thinking:

PE ticket requires 24 hours CE biannual. Electrical Administrator (called a masters in some locales) license requires 8 hours NEC specific biannual.
I like to go to school at least every other year - for something useful as opposed to just meeting the hours requirements. And I lean heavily toward stuff that increases

If you don't have it, get your PE. Take what ever classes it takes to ace the test. Do this as soon as possible. I don't recall being one bit better the day after I got my PE as the day before. It does get you farther ahead for the jobs. And adds credibility for dealing with the regulators.
Get an NEC class every cycle. Stallcup is okay. Mike Holt is more entertaining. Most of the rest are varying degrees of mediocre. And there are plenty out there I have not seen.
NFPA 70E class - Arc-flash. I like Jim Phillips. Most of the rest were endless pictures of burned bodies. Yeah, we get it. We know it's dangerous work. How about working on techniques for mitigation? Should refresh this every cycle.
Protective relay/coordination class. SEL does look good. I have not attended any of their classes. There are others.
ETAP class or other software available to you. Yes one can pick this up on your own, The class jump starts and avoids a lot of poor techniques.

That's my short list of the education that has benefited me.

(edit to add) Take offered classes on specialized test equipment.
Take offered classed on specialized equipment.

carl


Harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction

 

[bacon4life]

Participating in this forum has helped me much more than any specific class I have ever taken. If Washington ever starts requiring continuing education, I sure hope there will be a way to submit all my hours spent learning on eng-tips.

Another good learning device for me was subscribing the NEC code question of the day, and cracking open the NEC whenever I couldn't answer the question myself.

 

[KillBill7]

Thanks everyone for the valuable suggestions. I'll like to share some of the courses I found online on the platforms like coursera and EDX. Some of you may find them useful.

Smart grid integration & modelling:

https://www.edx.org/professional-certificate/delftx-smart-grids-integration-and-modeling

Electric Industry operations & markets:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/elec...age]=10&configure[clickAnalytics]=true&page=1

Post graduate certificate in power electronics from University of Colorado Boulder

https://www.colorado.edu/graduatesc...ficate-programs/power-electronics-certificate

 

[crshears]

Participating in this forum has helped me much more than any specific class I have ever taken.

This is less true for me, not due to any deficiencies or shortcomings with ET but because I'm not an engineer and never went to university, and as such find often enough that posts in the eighteen fora here that I lurk in are frequently over my head, meaning I am literally out of my depth, so I just don't get involved in those...but for those where I do weigh in, I thank you for your continued sufferance of my presence.

Beyond that, this forum, Generator and Motor Control Engineering, and the Electrical Engineering General Discussion fora are where I am most comfortable, with the boiler and thermodynamics ones not far behind.

I'm very appreciative that over the years my employer has seen fit to send me on and/or has brought in instructors to provide myself and my colleagues with training on such topics as supervisory skills, instructional techniques, NERC certification, propane handling, speed governor operation, power system restoration, relaying, and numerous others; these have proven of great value. I should add that the union that represents me had to fight, sometimes hard, to get training time built right into our schedule - but the impressive results became obvious in relatively short order, and the company soon chose of its own accord to increase the percentage of our working hours allotted to training; in all fairness I must offer kudos to them for recognizing the returns the investment paid, and I definitely commiserate with those of you whose employers "don't like you not working," which I have by personal experience come to see as a very short-sighted view.

On a more personal level, I have found the Canadian Power Squadron's Basic Boating course I took years ago to have stood me in good stead in quite a different number of situations.

CR

"As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." [Proverbs 27:17, NIV]

 

[DM61850]

bacon4life,

This forum is extremely beneficial. I though wouldn't forget that there is a lot here that you wouldn't understand without having taken those applicable classes. We had potential interns (sophomores) try to answer a basic voltage divider with a resistor in series with two parallel resistors. Only 1 out of 12 got it right. The rest either couldn't or got wrapped up in trying to put together mesh equations. If someone is struggling with just that, it is impossible to do much until they are brought up to speed.