Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated Nov 10, 2005
The Instructors Course
It was way back in the late seventies while I was working in the oil construction yard as a welding inspector, that I was asked if I would go up to the welding school as an instructor. This move meant more money for me, and there was a great difference between being an instructor from an inspector. Of course I had to re qualify myself again as welder and attend a two week instructor technique course at Hillington near Glasgow, before I could start. The company required a lot more welders, and had decided to train them form scratch, up to the required standard. The government encouraged this training and in fact paid for it, there only stipulation was that the training be carried out by qualified instructors, hence the reason for me to re-code and attend that course. So I cleared out my desk in the quality control department and said farewell to all my colleagues there, and made my way up to the training school. Little did I know then that this would be my first time out of four that I would be working there in that school, and then I set about practicing for my upcoming welding tests? This felt strange to me at first, as I had not been on the tools, as we called it, for three years.
Yet it was not long before the old skills came back to me, in fact I was actually enjoying it. Then after a few days of practice I had to do the first of my three welding tests, one for each process that I had been previously coded at. Coded in this text meant that you were qualified to work on pipe work, as you had to maintain the high standard required all the time. If you spent a period of three months where you had not done any X-ray work in any of the processes, you were required to re sit your welding test again.
I had to wait for a couple of days to get the mechanical results back for my three tests, before it was time to go down to Glasgow for the training course, and after being told that my tests had all passed, I found myself driving down to Glasgow with all the information I required to find the hotel and some information on the course itself. My attitude towards this course was negative to say the least, as I thought it would not be much help at all especially when both the trainees and I would be wearing welding screens, hard hats and ear defenders, during any demonstrations. Little did I know just how much benefit this course was going to have, and the effect it was going to have on me as a person?
It turned out to be really fascinating; in fact it was even enjoyable at times. They used to film us as we gave classroom lectures and would turn the volume off on the recording if you talked while writing on the black board, as they said that you never had the full attention of the class when we did that. There were people form all types of work attending that course, and some of them had really peculiar jobs which they had to train recruits as part of on the job training.
One bloke in particular, who worked for British Gas, thought himself to be way above the rest of us, which made him unpopular with the class. He kept going on about how technical his job was, and that in his opinion there was nothing this course could teach him. In fact he asked the instructor who was giving the course, if he thought that the rest of the class, meaning us, would be able to understand his technical lectures? He was left feeling rather embarrassed when his video tape was played back to the whole class, when the volume was hardly ever on as he spent most of his forty five minute lecture talking to the black board. This was made even worse when parts of his tape was played back in slow motion, as he played catch with the chalk, by throwing it up in the air and catching it, while struggling to remember his next line. In fact he was most indignant to our response while viewing the tape. The fact that even the instructor could hardly keep a straight face, made his reaction even worse. Not that all the rest of us were perfect by any means, where as we could appreciate the humorous side of our short comings, but this person took it all for too personally.
Another poor bloke on the course, who worked for British Leyland, had to make the fitting of a tail gate light bulb into a car on the assembly line, last for the twenty minute shop floor lesson. This was totally hilarious for the rest of us, as we had to pretend to be totally interested on every word he said, and were also expected to ask questions on his completion. He repeated himself constantly as he struggled to make the lesson last for the compulsory twenty minutes, which we all found totally amusing. When it came to this other blokes turn to give a class room lecture, we had a really hard time just to keep a straight face. As this bloke worked in a factory that made womens underwear, and he had the unfortunate job of teaching recruits how to sew the gussets into the knickers! Of course, this made his shop floor demonstrations even harder both for him as well as us.
So as you can imagine, there was a need for a sense of humour for everyone taking part, its just a pity that the bloke form British Gas had a humour bypass prior to starting the course. As part of the final examination we had to make visual aids, consisting of at least seven parts, and fill three sections a black board with written notes, that we had to give a copy of to our examiner prior to starting the lecture. The lecture, which was video taped, had to last for at least forty five minutes, and we were not allowed to deviate from the written notes that we handed in. I made my subject Pre Heating, which is a very important part of any welding work being done. In fact, I was so impressed with the final outcome myself that I used exactly the same lecture to cover this subject after my return to work.
So the whole experience was entirely the opposite of what I had expected, in fact I found it really helpful upon my return. Little things like student participation, allowing the student to feel the tools and getting them involved with the practical side of things at every opportunity, made a great difference in my opinion. As it was things like that we would never had thought about prior to doing that course.
I never found it difficult to stand in front of a class full of trainees even before I went on that course. Yet I must admit that afterwards I had gained even more confidence in doing so, in fact if I was giving any of the lectures that we had to do, some of the other instructors would ask if they could add their students to the class. I think that adding humour to it all, made the students feel more relaxed, this in turn made keeping charge out on the shop floor a bit easier for us. The training school itself was not a very desirable place, with all the noise form the grinders, the heat and fumes, took some time to adapt to and you had to guide the students through some very stressful situations, both physical and mentally.
Sometimes you had to be friend to them, other times you had to be a tough boss, but the one thing you definitely had to be, was honest at all times. If the student was failing the grade, or falling behind, you had to make them aware of this, and the hardest part of the job, which I always found to be the most difficult, was to tell a person who has sweated blood and shown so much determination and worked so hard, that they were not going to make it. In some cases this meant that they were out of a job, or in other cases that they were going back down the site as a labourer, which they were before coming up to the school. Of course this meant that they had to face their mates and admit that they had failed. There is of course no shame in that, as no matter how much effort they put into it, some people just do not have that skill or the eye and hand coordination it takes to be welder. On the positive side of the job, it was a great feeling to have when a former trainee would pop in to see you on their way to or form the site. This could really cheer you up if you were having a bad day, and left the both of you with a feeling of pride. A feeling they well deserved, for to get through that welding course you had to be good.
As I used to tell all my trainees, now that you have passed the test you are still not yet a welder! You have just been taught how to pass the test the real training comes down on the site, where you are in the same boat as a Hollywood actor, only as good as your last picture, and the picture in this sense being an x-ray of your last weld.
