Education Spotlight

NHLA INSPECTOR TRAINING SCHOOL: ARE 8 WEEKS REALLY ENOUGH?

By ROMAN MATYUSHCHENKO, Inspector Training School Instructor

NHLA has officially changed the duration of its traditional hardwood lumber inspection program from 12-weeks to 8-weeks. The first class to experience the new curriculum was class #194, graduating on February 26, 2021. As of October 2021, class #195 completed the new 8-week program, and class #196 is underway.

I want to address some questions and concerns from our respected alumni and hardwood industry professionals about reducing the duration of the traditional lumber inspection program to 8-weeks. In the past, students spent anywhere from 12 weeks to 6-months at the NHLA Inspector Training School studying lumber grading.

To quote some of the concerns I have received, “It is impossible to learn what you need to know to be a good inspector in just 8-weeks,” and “There was a lot to learn in the short 6-month course, and now they have shortened the course to just 8-weeks long.”

Yes, in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, the class duration was about five and a half months long, and the classes had up to 70 students, which was the maximum capacity. There was even a waiting list for students. However, this was a long time ago. Since the mid-2000s, the size of the classes has dramatically reduced. Occasionally we had classes with only 6-7 students. In the Fall of 2020, amid the COVID19 pandemic, there were a record-low 4 students.

Back when students attending the NHLA Inspector Training School stayed in Memphis for almost half a year, they had to find ways to entertain themselves being away from home. That’s why the Inspector Training School used to have a basketball team, ping pong competitions, and even The Lumber Olympics. Imagine that! The Lumber Olympics only took place once and was never held again. Information about these extra-curricular activities is in our archives, and anyone interested in learning more is welcome to come to NHLA headquarters in Memphis to access the collection. Now I have a couple of questions. Did the extra-curricular activities listed above require time and devotion from the students and staff? I guess the answer is obvious. Did all those activities help the students to become more knowledgeable or experienced in grading lumber? I doubt it. One more thing to consider is the cost of education. When the School was almost 6-months long, the cost of living, in general, was relatively low, making it much less expensive for sponsor companies to send their employees to the School for training. NOW, IF WE DO A QUICK CALCULATION FOR A 12-WEEK PROGRAM TODAY, WE’LL SEE THE FOLLOWING: • Housing: 12 weeks x 7 nights x $69 = $5,796 (I used the lowest available room rate of $69 (including taxes) at the Candlewood

Suites, where ITS students receive discounted corporate rate.

Class 194

• Food: 12 weeks x 7 days x $30 = $2,520. Of course, this is the price if you can live on $30 a day. If you need more, calculate accordingly. • Tuition: $2,500

• Supplies: $125 • Travel Expenses (gas, flight, rental car): This can vary by individual, but for this case, we’ll use a modest price of $500. • Salary: If students still get paid while at School, don’t forget to add that cost into the equation. For example, using $15 an hour as entry-level pay: 12 weeks x 40 hours x $15 = $7,200. These expenses add up to $18,641. But this is just a baseline; it could end up costing much more. The lowest total cost incurred for the 12-week program was almost $20,000. By eliminating extra-curricular activities and reducing the duration of the program to 8-weeks, we can help the sponsor companies and students save money. Shortening the class duration enables the student to return to work faster to begin their “on-the-job” training and gain the work experience needed to become an asset to the company.

Before scheduling the first official 8-week course, the Inspector Training School spent a great deal of time examining possible revisions to the program to ensure the best success and outcome. A 7-week beta course was held in the Summer of 2020 before officially introducing the 8-week class.Thanks to our commitment to the hardwood industry, NHLA members, and our love of the School (and all it represents), we decided changes were in order. Please allow me to explain our new 8-week program. • The students still learn and memorize all the rules and definitions, as they have since the School was founded. • They still study and memorize all the species exceptions, including walnut rules.

• Unlike in the past, the students don’t just sit in the classroom and memorize the rules. They can have study groups to aid in memorizing the rules, but when in class, they apply the rules. • We begin applying the grading rules and grading boards at the end of the first week, unlike the previous program, which focused on spending the first four weeks sitting and memorizing the material. • Students grade boards every day, beginning on the second week and continuing through the end of the course. So, they don’t have time for basketball, ping-pong competitions, or the Olympics, as they spent all the time at School grading the boards.

• As for the daily board runs, they learn one species at a time.

This helps students focus on one species and understand the features unique to each species, including ash, aspen, basswood, beech, birch, cherry, elm, hickory, poplar, oak (red and white), maple (hard and soft), and walnut. • Close to the end of the course, we invite our friend and colleague

Adam Taylor of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville to give the students lectures on drying hardwoods and species identification, two fundamental aspects of the hardwood industry and something that every good lumber inspector must know.

• We no longer take field trips, which allows the students to spend more time on grading. The students will experience “real-world” lumber grading upon their return to their companies. • The students inspect lumber on the grading chain, enabling them to get a feel for flipping and grading multiple boards while moving.

Students have a 100-board practice run, as well as a final exam of 100 boards.

• Lastly, students are provided with study guides and access to the Quizlet App upon registration. The Quizlet app can be downloaded to any smartphone and includes flashcard definitions/terms to study and a way to practice their math skills.

This is sent via e-mail or mail to the students to give them ample time to practice and prepare for the course before the first day. As I’m writing this article, we have eleven students in Class 196, making it our largest class since 2019. To everyone concerned about the duration of the current program and those who may still be considering sending their employee(s) to the NHLA School Inspector Training School, I would like to close with this. Despite the shortening of the program, the curriculum still has all of the same things that older programs had. We just reorganized it and excluded the unnecessary elements, helping the students focus on what they come here for – the Hardwood Lumber Grading Rules while saving their sponsors time and money. We are still doing our best to support the industry by preparing the new generations of hardwood lumber inspectors. As the young inspectors come to the industry, the industry ensures its future.