Hey Eric, Here's another one. back in the day, the plants used to send techs to a 40hr. course followed by testing, for the NEU. Don't you think that Bartlett could look at this as a money maker from the standpoint of getting more SR. techs hired due to the fact that some fail and then have to work as Jr's or not work at all, there by costing B money. Self study by any tech is good but many aren't good at that. Not stupid but almost anyone will agree that a facilitated training program is far better that leave people to hit or miss.
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I may be wrong but I don't recall any 40 hr courses to prep for the NEU. I do remember that when the test was first implemented sites used to have a prep course, normally 1/2 day to 1 day long (on the rare occasion 1-2 days)then the test would be administered. As time went by sites stoped offering prep training, probably because the study information has become a lot more accessable to the techs between the internet and "hand me down" information passsed on from 1 tech to another. I'm sure the amount of training time and money spent on it were also a factor. I do agree with you that some sort of prep course would be benficial for all parties involved - the tech, the plant and the vendor. It does no one any good to have a tech fail the exam and be downgraded or even worse sent down the road.
Most sites don't require JHP techs to take and pass the exam, some do and I firmly belive that they, Jr's, should definatley have a prep course. I do however advocate that if you can take the test as a JHP then do so. It will give you an understanding of what to expect, what to study for, and help you get used to the testing "jitters", if you suffer from them.
Now I'm not an HP and never claimed to be one. From what most techs tell me the exam is nonsense from what they have to do in real world situations. All that aside I remember a time before the NEU that every site had thier own HP fundamentals exam. Technicians, both Sr and Jr would have to take 2-3 differant HP exams per season. There were for the most part no prep courses for those either. We, the vendor, would be given a study guide from each site and asked to forward it to the techs scheduled to report for thier outage. Now this old system led to far more test failures, technicians being sent down the road, and short handed situations than what I observe today.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the current system is flawless but has been greatly improved over the years. As I stated earlier there would be a great benefit of having some sort of prep course for the NEU for SHPs that have expired on it, SHPs that are making the transition from the military, shipyards or DOE, and of course JHPs that are trying to gain as much knowledge and experience as they can. Various people in our organization have been tasked to try to come up with some sort of training plan, where they are with right now I don't know but I'll inquire.
I apologize for being so long winded.
Eric
