The construction industry poses its own unique challenges to RTOs and organisations providing an e-learning solution. Here are our top eight tips and hints to successfully use e-learning for construction apprenticeships:
- Use multi-media effectively. It’s no secret that tradies hate reading and writing. Otherwise they wouldn’t be tradies. They learn kinetically, with their eyes and hands. So make your lessons visual, with lots of video, and animation to illustrate complex concepts. Two minute chunks of information should be the goal.
- Use automated SMS to keep in contact. Tradies don’t often pick up the phone because it interrupts their flow of work. The last thing they want is their trainer calling them about an on-line course in the middle of their work day while they on a ladder or using a tool, so SMS is a much better way to send reminders or to send messages. There are several automated systems such as Message Media, which allow you to send bulk SMS reminders to all your apprentices on a regular basis.
- Be patient. Most apprentices are 17-21 year old pimply faced young men and women who are struggling with hormones and learning how to navigate their way in the construction industry. They often need constant consistent reminders. If you find this frustrating, get over it. Teenagers have been like this for thousands of years, and the chances are you were too. So be patient and watch them grow and improve with your help and nurturing.
- Get smart-phone compatible. Although you may only use your smart-phone for making calls, apprentices use them for everything from dating to ordering a pizza to checking the weather. They can text faster than you can speak. Many of them cannot afford a new PC, but they often have the latest phone. Tradies are highly mobile, working on dozens of work-sites every year, so if your course is not smart-phone compatible you will lose them. We recently had a 100% increase in the participation rate after we improved the smart-phone compatibility of our courses.
- Engage with social media. Young apprentices love sharing photos of themselves and their mates, so make sure your trainers know how to take good photos and share using social media. The old rules of privacy just don’t matter to most young tradies, so if they agree to you sharing your photos why not post them on social networks and watch how they proudly share it with their friends! In all the time I have been taking photos of my apprentices only one has asked not to be on social media.
- Use site visits to reinforce employer training and do gap training. Ninety percent of a trade can be taught by the employer, so your job is just to supply the under-pinning knowledge, collate the evidence, and provide additional gap-training. Just because your course is on-line doesn’t mean you don’t need site visits. The human touch still goes a long way.
- Choose the right Learning Management System. Very few LMS offer a great learning experience, video response technology, and the capacity to monitor authenticity and validity of assessments for trades. The best LMS for construction include Ammonite, and Tutis.
- Retrain your staff. Using e-learning for apprenticeships requires a completely different skill set to the traditional TAFE trainer used to classroom instruction. Older trainers may need retraining to develop computer skills, so make sure you mentor them through the process. A good classroom instructor will not necessarily make the transition to e-learning, so take the time to find the right trainers.
By following the above principles you can use new technology to provide high quality training for the construction industry, including apprenticeships. Contact EduBytes for advice and assistance in making the transition to 21st century apprenticeship training.
Author: Daniel Wurm has 7 years experience developing and using e-learning for apprenticeship training in the construction industry, and in 2015 was South Sydney Trainer of the Year at the NSW Training Awards
