BUSINESS
Training for PMPs
UGA Extension's online program saves time, money by Sharon Dowdy for CAES News In doing so, he has also opened up access to training from UGA Cooperative Extension to many more people and significantly expanded the reach of his program. “No other state that I’m aware of does this for credit. It’s a good idea. They don’t have to leave their office or their home to get the education they need to do their jobs,” said Suiter, director of the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ structural pest management extension and research program on the UGA Griffin campus. “And the instructors are all PhDs so you are getting highcaliber, research-based training.” Getting the Best of Pests reaches out to the Georgia green industry offering CEU Category Credits from the privacy and luxury of a home or office environment. The pest control operators shown logged into a webinar from their Florida-based office.
Whether they are running an independent business or working for a large corporation, pest management
professionals (PMPs) know that time is money.
UAC MAGAZINE | FALL 2019
For busy professionals, finding the time to keep certifications current by completing mandated continuing education units (CEUs) means finding time in busy schedules to attend classes, taking time away from work and possibly inconveniencing important clients.
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To help make scheduling less of an issue, a University of Georgia entomologist took his training program for PMPs and private and commercial pesticide applicators to the web. By offering a series of education courses online, including those for CEUs, Dan Suiter relieved the stress for license holders who are searching for continuing education courses, sometimes at the last minute.
The webinar series has now been educating PMPs in Georgia and beyond since 2013. The technical side of things is managed by the staff in the Center for Urban Agriculture at UGA-Griffin. The webinars average about 300 participants but have attracted as many as 572. Since the program moved online, 29 webinars have been delivered to 4,700 people from 16 states and Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, India and Afghanistan.
“A pest control company employee can now sit in his or her office, watch a 55-minute webinar and get an hour of CEU credit,” ~ Dan Suiter “They don’t have to drive 60 miles to a class and miss a whole day of work. They can be in their truck, headed to a job 10 minutes later. And their carbon footprint is much lighter now. Individual companies have enrolled as many as 90 employees among numerous offices throughout Georgia for a single webcast.” The programs have included speakers from UGA and other universities in Georgia, Florida,
