Technicians and engineers need to upgrade their skills regularly in order to keep equipment properly maintained and safe to operate. However, the constraints of a daily job makes it difficult for them to find the time required for training. To help overcome this challenge, Genie introduced the Genie TechPro eLearning website two years ago, providing a flexible solution for technical professionals to improve skill sets.
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 and covering a broad range of Genie products as well as core skills such as electrics, hydraulics and wire rope inspections.
As Phase 1 of a two-step programme, Genie TechPro training courses are designed for familiarisation purposes before attending instructor-led, practical training. The first phase also covers component identification, schematics and calibration settings. Each Genie TechPro module ends with a quiz test that enables users to evaluate their knowledge and feel comfortable when they begin the instructor-led, practical training.
Geert Hansen, Genie technical trainer and training manager, Terex AWP, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia region (EMEAR), says: “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, 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.”
The second phase helps technicians build a stronger foundation with practical training on setting up machines, finding faults and calibration of equipment.
“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,” says Hansen.
A new course named ‘Genie Generic Systems on Booms’ has recently been added to the TechPro menu. Focusing on 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.
With more than 300 Genie customers already registered online, Genie is expecting TechPro user numbers to double in the EMEAR region in the coming year.
“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,” says Hansen.
