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FFor this edition of AsphaltPro, we’re devoting more pages than usual to training. Let’s face it, today’s construction workforce doesn’t look like the workforce of the 1970s or ’80s. Workers may or may not have any idea what they’re signing up for when they fill out an application to join the paving or production crew. Just because our industry offers excellent pay and the instant gratification of a gorgeous roadway at the end of the day doesn’t mean every person signing up will know how to earn the paycheck and place the pavement. It’s our job to teach the newcomers to the industry.

Frustrated workers who find themselves in the hot seat for failing at a task or who find themselves in harm’s way when members of the crew are ignorant of best/safest practices are the workers who will leave in a hurry.

Let’s use the following pages to discuss what options associations, consultants, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and service providers offer to help you train workers on the job.

I would be remiss if I didn’t draw attention to the online course AsphaltPro Magazine offers. For the course, we worked with Paving

Industry Consultant John Ball of Top Quality

Paving & Training, Manchester, New Hampshire, to develop an eight-module online resource of back-to-basics paving best practices. It’s designed to bring new hires up to speed or to offer existing workers a refresher on concepts and tips for getting quality results. We priced the course so you can buy it once but have access to it whenever and wherever you need it, to use it with as many workers as you need to train as often as you need to train them. In other words, you buy it once and use it for the life of your company.

The paving portion of our industry isn’t the only area where training is essential.

Clarence Richard Company has offered webbased training as a portion of its instructor-led asphalt plant operation schools for a number of years. “He started out 20 years ago by offering classes in his local area with himself and a few guest instructors,” Steve

Klein explained. “This quickly grew into a traveling road show of classes scattered

BY ASPHALTPRO STAFF

around the country. Each class in a motel conference room for a week with participants from a regional area. The cost of not only the classes, but lodging and travel, were added to the classes. This lasted a number of years before manpower and travel needs had Clarence evolve the training sessions into an online school. He offered individual lessons via an Adobe online-based school with separate modules for instruction in different areas, review and testing sections to make sure the material was understood.”

While students were learning in this format, Richard found this style of classes didn’t offer the kind of interaction where individuals could ask the instructor or classmates questions. He solved that by moving some of the training sections to Zoom. “They implemented the use of the breakout rooms and polling for testing, as well as YouTube,” Klein explained.

Richard also re-connected with Klein from the original classroom schools and went over material to decide how best to offer the newand-improved Zoom schools. They now offer five-day-long areas with a mix-and-match approach. They include: 1. Safety 2. Mix Quality 3. Production 4. Electrical/Mechanical Day 1 5. Electrical/Mechanical Day 2

“Companies could take one, two, three or five days of classes,” Klein shared. “By offering different combinations over multiple weeks, they could tailor the schools to their needs.

“During the classes, the instruction used some of the web-based training aids along with fresh material and examples. During the presentations, not only were the students encouraged to ask questions for clarification, but also to share stories and experiences that they had encountered. We even took one day where, in place of each group breaking for lunch and returning, we had a Zoom style lunch break with ongoing conversations. With this back-and-forth sharing, the school was similar to the older training with new advantages.”

Web-based training advantages, Klein shared, include: • Transportation only to their local workplace or internet access point • Shared expenses with other class members • Questions answered in real time • Handouts and worksheets received via email • Flexible scheduling for classes • Ability to pick up a missed class or portion of a class recorded to the cloud • Full days of training; if a conversation runs long, it can be extended for full answers • Classes bring value to all levels of training and experience

Not all learners take information in over the web or during a Zoom conference as well as they do during a live demonstration or in person. To that end, contractors and producers have options in the industry. The team at Astec has announced dates for the Astec plant school and Astec paving school as of press time. Those schools will be held at the Jerome Avenue location in Chattanooga.

With Libra Systems’ controls and systems now folded into their offerings, the team at Command Alkon offers in-person training for customers. A spokesperson shared: “Command Alkon’s TRAININGDAYS gives system users the opportunity to stay up to date on evolving industry best practices, solutions feature sets, and leading technologies. Users can freshen up skills, industry network, and strategies for success. Participants can attend classes from a single product line or mix and match classes across product lines to meet training needs.”

Other companies offering in-person training include those who will come to your location. A spokesperson for Tarmac International said: “At Tarmac, we enjoy meeting our customers in person and helping them with their equipment at their site. Being in person and at your site helps us to have a better picture of your whole plant and operation. Something you might not think would make a difference could be the key to improving the way your plant works.”

B&S Light Industries team members go to customers to offer training as needed to ensure controls systems are understood and all members of the team are using the systems at top efficiency.

E.D. Etnyre offers training at its facility in Oregon, Illinois. Brian Horner explained: “We have two types of schools; one for dealer mechanics and one for customers, with several sessions of each. Customer schools are normally two-day class (one for distributor and one for chipspreaders); dealer schools are normally four-day schools. Customer schools include operation, safety, maintenance and troubleshooting. Dealer schools are more mechanical in nature.”

Because Etnyre works around trade show schedules, dates hadn’t been set in stone at press time, but Horner explained the dealer schools normally are held in February with customer schools in March. Historically, the company hasn’t charged for training schools.

TransTech Systems Inc. also offers specific free training, by appointment. “TransTech Systems Inc. offers free density clinics. Our team provides a class that covers overall density, as well as operation and use of the non-nuclear density asphalt or soil gauge.” If you’re in need of such training, you should contact TransTech Systems directly. “Our clinics are by appointment, and dependent upon social distancing protocol, may be in person (at our office) or virtual.”

BOMAG Americas Inc. shared: “We provide hands-on training at our facility in Ridgeway, dealer locations and customer locations.”

Jerod Willow of Willow Designs offers density training for customers as well. “I believe that asphalt construction in all of its phases is an obvious skill set—a skill set that is only defined and improved upon by direct action and hands-on experience, like most trades. Briefings and techniques taught in small segmented time frames and then applied directly to field applications provide the best and quickest results, especially when the group of trainees is small, which instills a higher comfort level to interact with the instructor. I find it hard as an instructor to convey and highlight certain details of asphalt construction in webbased form.

“Even before COVID, I have always encouraged my clients to contact me to provide phone support. A majority of the time we can talk through project details, analyze the problem, and I can provide multiple solutions. I believe there is value in e-learning or webinars but only at the fundamental level or for recertification.”

TQP’s Ball follows that line of reasoning. His training is based on going to a site with a crew, assisting the team in real time, taking pictures of what’s right and what’s wrong with equipment setup, taking video of practices and processes, and training in-person, on the job, with the company's existing equipment, personnel, and material. At the end of a week with a crew, he gives a detailed report to the team and/or management, giving them a USB drive containing the 150 to 200 pictures and 20 to 25 short videos from the week, and offering ideas for areas of continuing improvement.

Considering he led training for Pike Industries before building his own consulting business, Ball brings decades of paving and compacting experience to each crew he works with. That kind of knowledge keeping up with today’s thermal profiling and automation advances offers a sharp advantage to the crewmembers willing to learn from him.

For companies looking to take crewmembers off-site, there are state association lunch-n-learn sessions, local associated general contractors (AGC) seminars, trade industry conferences, and more that offer everything from regional to national to online learning opportunities. Don’t forget to check out the resources your state asphalt pavement association offers when it comes to annual meetings or monthly workshops. The big industry conventions include the co-located World of Asphalt and the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Associa-

Clarence Richard Company offers its instructor-led asphalt plant operator schools via Zoom.

tion’s AGG1 Academy & Expo taking place in Nashville in 2022.

“NSSGA continues to utilize innovative technology to bridge the gap between members who are able to join in person and those that would prefer to participate digitally. We understand that the online and e-learning platforms can’t fully replicate the camaraderie and networking experiences. NSSGA works to provide all members and attendees with different user-friendly experiences whether attending in-person or virtually to maximize their experience.”

“Though in-person connections and relationships between peers that are created when attending an event can be considered priceless, it is NSSGA’s ongoing promise to create an omni-channel approach to our events, and recently we have started to successfully host blended meetings by offering both in-person and virtual option. This will continue with our 2022 AGG1 Academy & Expo.”

You can grab more information about the AGG1 Academy & Expo’s education sessions at the website. Because the show is co-located with the World of Asphalt and its education arm, you can take advantage of asphalt-centric training during the same convention. Check out the WOA education session at the website.

As always, AsphaltPro magazine brings you training tidbits in our Training department as often as possible. Those articles are uploaded to the Training department tab on our website. Be sure you sign up for the free Toolbox Tips e-mail that brings you a quick, easily applicable talking point each Monday morning at https://theasphaltpro. com/upgrade-daily-toolbox-talks/.