Most effective form of Technical Training for professional engineers? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: MixedSignalSystems
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2014, 11:56:36 pm
content: Some colleagues and I were discussing the most effective form of Technical Training for professional engineers.When discussing the different training methods, we were considering different trade offs like time taken, cost, benefit, etc. We've come up with this list and we each have our preference.We'd like to increase the sample size and see what other people think.

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 12, 2014, 12:08:34 am
content: Just to clarify, what kind of engineer are you referring to?, electrical, electronic, mechanical, ?as each field will earn a different answer, but in all cases i would have to say you need to fit in some on field exposure to fill in the gaps of there understanding, e.g. real examples of failure modes, or what can happen if you dont follow the standards, as though the number of people that need this visual reinforcement is small out of the group as a whole its (atleast in my opinion) its good to use to make sure they understand the ramifications for choosing one process over another, (and not just preaching to the class "thou must not ......" without them understanding why)

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 12, 2014, 07:30:53 am
content: I've been on many courses over the years, some varying from excellent to those I left halfway through. The keep to any run course is the quality of the person delivering the training, no matter what the method of deliveryThe other thing I really wish for, is for engineers to be properly taught in both time management and basic business studies.

author: MixedSignalSystems
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 13, 2014, 01:24:15 am
content: Quote from: Rerouter on April 12, 2014, 12:08:34 amThe engineers that I discussing this with were all electronic engineers in the consumer electronics industry.

author: peter.mitchell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 13, 2014, 03:13:22 am
content: Whilst it probably falls under trial and error, "experimenting" and following what your brain wants you to do (not so much doing what you enjoy, because often your brain is "bloody heck, that was horrible! lets do it again!") IMHO offers the best "absorption".I don't mean "free play" kinda thing, i mean more "here, build x, if you have any problems or what not, give me a yell", if they put in a good solid effort and seem interested, thats good enough, they'll work out everything else.Quote from: KJDS on April 12, 2014, 07:30:53 amI wouldn't really say time management and business studies, more... priority management, this is more important if you teach them engineering using experimental methods.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 13, 2014, 03:20:41 am
content: Engineering is about solving problems and getting things working. And ultimately you can't get very good at that unless you build/do things and encounter unexpected problems and them troubleshoot and solve them. That falls under "trial and error" I guess.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 13, 2014, 03:25:05 am
content: It's hard to beat actually doing it if it's practical to do so for the purpose of learning.

author: Neganur
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 14, 2014, 05:31:26 pm
content: Those options don't make sense if they're mutually exclusive. Why can't you experience trial and error in weekly 1-2h on/off site training sessions.If you by trial and error mean, just plugging away on your breadboard and see if it works, then I disagree. I f you mean the sensation you get by having a circuit fail and then fix it and understand why it failed (or to help understanding limitations of a concept) - then yes that is very useful. Sometimes you need a one-on-one session to have someone check up your logic if there is something you're stuck on.If you're talking about training an employee, it is usually done one-on-one since you don't typically get a lot of new people in at once. If it's a machine, give him the manual in advance, maybe a demo unit to familiarize with. If it's a new product/machine and you're training all of the guys, you probably need someone who is very familiar with the topic and also has experience in training people.EDIT: reading through it again, in my opinion things of importance: repetition and actually doing stuff. Sometimes it is beneficial to see things happen before approaching difficult theoretical concepts, sometimes it all falls into place when you first had the theory and then had the opportunity to try and fail and improve.