Over in the Workforce Zone on the show floor at NASCC: The Steel Conference, participants are getting a sneak peek at an upcoming program designed to help AISC members train new hires.
The Fabricator Education Training Program is designed to provide AISC members with an easy way to introduce basic concepts to new employees at their fabrication shops. As a robust supplement to in-person training, the program intends to help new hires acquire necessary skills as quickly as possible in order to feel more involved and supported in their new roles, which will, in turn, help them progress into more specialized career paths that become available with experience.
"New employees can get overwhelmed with all the things they don't know about steel fabrication,” said Joel Landsverk, AISC’s Fabricator Education Program manager. “This new training will introduce them to the tools, language, and environment of a real fab shop, helping them to get comfortable and productive, faster than ever."
The first 14 courses of the program include about five hours of training content.
One standout quality of these courses is the training approach they take. Presented mostly in video segments, they are centered around mentor/employee scenarios, with an expert fabricator standing in as the mentor. New hires who take the training will be introduced to essential skills like how to properly read and use a tape measure, how to use a grinder, and even how to torch cut. The scenarios depicted in the courses play out just as they would in a real fabrication shop--and, in fact, all the content in this program is created in fully active fabrication shops to deliver maximum authenticity and effectiveness.
AISC members are eager to start implementing the Fabricator Education Training Program into their onboarding processes. Through his firsthand experience working with new hires, Kenny Hicks, a structural steel training specialist with Able Steel Fabricators, Inc. in Mesa, Ariz., can attest to the benefits the program will bring to fabricators across the country.
“Every steel employer in America is looking for talent right now. We can get employees, but can we get talent?” Hicks said. “The industry is starving for talent, so the only way we’re going to fix it is through training. The industry needs what [AISC is] doing. We needed it 20 years ago [so that] we wouldn’t have gone through this slump that we’re coming out of now.”
The Fabricator Education Training Program is a game-changer when it comes to recruiting and retaining employees--and it’s already growing! Throughout 2024, the Fabricator Education Training Program will add fitter training courses to its library, focusing on topics such as drawing reading, construction math, and basic layout and fit-up strategies.
Stop by the booth to click through the first phase of courses at your leisure and find out more about how you can incorporate AISC’s Fabricator Education Program into your company’s new hire training.
The Fabricator Education Training Program will go live soon after NASCC: The Steel Conference. Visit aisc.org/fabricatortraining to sign up for updates.