Trainee qualification

[John Barnes]

I'm looking for info in general about what qualifications trainee's are coming into the service with, do any of the managers out there take on trainee's without any electronic qual's to send them to college while they learn on the job, like day release, and if you do what course is the minimum the trainee should do.

 

[Ian Wilde]

Hi John,

We took 3 trainees on some years ago; 1 at band 3 with no qualifications other than the first half of a medical engineering degree and some work experience; the other 2 had relevant qualifications in engineering disciplines and engineering experience.

The one member who had no qualifications we sent on day release to what I thought was a more suitable general engineering and maintenance qualification at college.  This person was then redeployed to our medical engineering department when they cut our numbers and they were not interested in any qualification other than a HNC so in hindsight I don't know if I'd do it differently in future - still undecided.

The way the ART training scheme is heading I'd definitely send them on that in future - with luck it may even become BTEC accredited.  If they're in renal for the long haul then the training scheme will be really good for them.

[John Barnes]

Hi Ian
we have a guy just started who will be doing the ART training scheme but what if any electronic quals should i send him to do day release?

The way the ART training scheme is heading I'd definitely send them on that in future - with luck it may even become BTEC accredited.  If they're in renal for the long haul then the training scheme will be really good for them.

thanks John

[Ian Wilde]

Hi John, I don't know what you or others think but there is much reduced electronics knowledge required these days with us being prevented at working down to component level. I picked a course for my trainee that had general engineering principles of course but had extra bits in like health and safety at work, project management, system processes, stuff like that. Like I mentioned it didn't cut the mustard when she had to move to medical engineering where they too will not work down to component level anymore. Getting the clinical knowledge and knowledge of water treatment components is more useful these days with an underpinning technical knowledge.