6 minute read
What makes a good trainer?
We talk to two plumbers who are leading the way in training the next generation—plus, bring news of a new course from Masterlink that’s helping train the trainers.
AUTHOR: NICK WALKER
Tom Berkley (centre) of Auckland Plumbers Group with apprentices, from left, Jack Smith, Johnny Waymouth and Naman Sami.
Good systems lead to a smooth training experience, says Shaun Hardy of Hardy Plumbing and Gas in Wanaka, shown here (left) with team member Tom Scurr, who completed his Masterlink apprenticeship last year.
TOM BERKLEY
AUCKLAND PLUMBERS GROUP
Q: You won the NZ Trainer of the Year at this year’s NZ Plumbing awards. Why does being a good trainer of apprentices mean so much to you? A: I had a pretty hard apprenticeship myself. I made a lot of mistakes and didn’t have a lot of encouragement, but I moved to the company I’m with now and it was a completely different learning style.
They built up my confidence again. I realised that anyone can make it if they have the right environment and training and people behind them to help them succeed.
Q: What’s your secret to training apprentices well? A: Support. As a trainer, you have to get alongside your apprentices, work out what makes them tick and what is the best way for them to learn.
It’s about providing an environment where they can learn on the job, because 95% of what you learn is when you’re handson and doing it—not at tech or in the books.
Q: What’s your approach to working with apprentices to help them learn? A: Every single job an apprentice goes out on is an opportunity to learn something new. It’s about making sure they know what they’re doing—whether that’s taking a video
of me doing something, or taking the time to explain what the faulty part was.
If they can get some of that information into their head or onto paper so they can actually learn, then they’ll make progress. You could change five hot water cylinders with them, but if you don’t focus on training as you go along, they still won’t know how to do it.
We schedule monthly one-on-one catch ups with every apprentice to make sure they’re up to date with their block courses and online assignments. It’s also a chance for them to ask questions and for us to make sure everything is all good.
Q: How do you give them broad experience of the different types of work? A: Our business lends itself naturally to that, because we work predominantly in maintenance. That’s really where you cut your teeth in how plumbing works, and we have a good balance of jobs coming in regularly.
NEW: MASTERLINK ‘TRAIN THE TRAINER’ COURSE
Great on-job training can empower apprentices to learn skills quickly and develop a passion for their trade—but training apprentices well is a skill in its own right.
Masterlink’s new Train the Trainer course gives Masterlink host businesses an understanding of how best to deliver on-job training to apprentices.
In developing the course, Masterlink spoke to a range of people involved with training—including hosts and apprentices—and found employers and supervisors often struggled to deliver training in a way that resonates with younger apprentices.
“You can be a good tradesperson or a good business owner, but being a good supervisor and trainer is completely different,” says Jason Goei, former Training Manager at Masterlink and now Operations Manager at Master Plumbers.
The course has been designed with today’s learning styles in mind and can be delivered online or face to face.
Course outline
The first part of the course works with the trainer. It includes lessons on: how to set expectations and give instructions how to understand apprentices’ learning styles the roles and responsibilities of trainers and their apprentices effective communication. The second part is about the apprentice. It covers: what it’s like to be a learner apprentice wellbeing the type of support needed how apprentices respond to different types of instructions.
How to sign up
Train the Trainer is available free to all Masterlink host businesses. Masterlink is currently assessing interest around the country before formally rolling out the course. If you are interested, please contact Masterlink directly or speak to your Regional Manager.
We don’t tend to pigeonhole people into the same thing. We buddy them up with different tradespeople so they’re getting different jobs and exposure to different ways of doing things.
Our approach is personalised to each apprentice. We don’t send them out in a van just because they’re in their third year—we make sure they’re actually ready. It’s about making sure they’re confident, and starting to talk to them about it ahead of time, so they can learn everything they need to. When they do get in a van, they’re ready.
SHAUN HARDY
HARDY PLUMBING & GAS, WANAKA
Q: What’s your secret to training apprentices well? A: The better systems we have in place, the smoother training becomes. We have 12 on our team, including four apprentices, and our aim is to spread the skill set throughout the team and collectively share knowledge and experience.
We have a dedicated driver doing deliveries, compliance certificates etc, which gives the apprentices more time onsite and allows the senior members of the team to focus on sharing their skills.
Q: How do you work with apprentices and help them upskill? A: We encourage all staff to upskill regularly—not just apprentices. We have meetings every Monday morning to run through jobs we’ve had in the last week and talk about how we dealt with them. It helps to spread learnings across the whole team, and it’s an open environment where anyone can ask questions or raise issues.
Also, when apprentices have block courses coming up, or questions after attending a block course, we make sure to take the time to give them the support or advice they need.
Q: Are there any no-nos when it comes to dealing with apprentices? A: We find by having mutual respect within the team, apprentices are engaged, motivated and eager to learn about what they’re doing.
We challenge them to achieve at their current level and make sure that if mistakes are made, they’re not made to feel like they’ve failed.
We also allow them to do things earlier that excite and engage them, such as jumping on the digger and back filling. It just means they have satisfaction in their work, and they’re not just on a shovel all day.
Q: What do you do if an apprentice makes a mistake? A: We all make mistakes—it’s part of learning. We use group chats to share mistakes and collectively discuss how we can improve on them in the future. We believe that by sharing this knowledge within the company, it reduces the risk of future mistakes and it creates open communication.
Q: How do they know if they’ve done a job well or could improve? A: We strive to monitor quality control both from the office via cloud-based photos, onsite checklists and feedback from main contractors.
Instead of just showing apprentices how to do a task, we explain why it’s done the way it is. We take the time to acknowledge work that’s been done correctly, and if they’re not sure about anything, we get them to think about how they’d approach it before we talk them through the correct method.
