PLC Boot Camp

Hi ,

I just arrived 4 months ago to the united States and I'm looking for PLC boot camp gives me guaranteed job after I got certified.Actually I dont know if there is like this chance here because I new in California.also I worked with Siemens company when I was in my country so I have started lately working in PLC and I have gotten courses in Germany I like it so much and I want to go ahead and finished what I started in my country.can some one help me in this matter any helping links or contacts.

any answer would be highly appreciated

Thanks

ron beaufort
http://ronbeaufort.com/

diat150 said:

ron beaufort
http://ronbeaufort.com/

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+1

while I sincerely appreciate the kind referrals, my classes are probably NOT a "good fit" toward meeting the original poster's stated goals ... I think the OP's use of the term "boot camp" has brought my name into the conversation ...

I'm looking for PLC boot camp gives me guaranteed job after I got certified.

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while I definitely DO fully guarantee that each customer will be satisfied with the training that I provide, I do NOT guarantee that each student will be able to land a job ...

just for the record, 99% of my students already HAVE jobs ... their bosses send the students to me - and pay to have them educated on how to troubleshoot and repair their plants' PLC-controlled equipment ... it is EXTREMELY rare when I will accept a student who is trying to "pay their own way" to attend one of my classes ...

my basic reasoning is this:

my boot camp style classes cover so much material – in such a short amount of time – that the "use it or lose it" effect is bound to occur if the students don't have an opportunity to practice their new skills immediately ...

these classes are intended as an investment for employers who are desperate enough to say: "I don't care how far I have to send them – and I don't care how much it costs – but I need my maintenance technicians trained to keep my PLC-controlled machinery up and running" ... for that reason alone, I've had students sent in from all across America, and from Spain, Chile, Guam, Australia, Trinidad/Tobago, the Virgin Islands, and I've totally lost track of how many have flown in from Canada ... (a related post) ...

my point is that my "boot camp" style classes are targeted toward a specific type of student – with specific training needs ... they are definitely not intended to be a "one size fits all" type of PLC training ...

so to folks in the OP's situation, my advice usually runs along these lines:

do NOT try to sign up for one of my boot camp classes ... instead, try to find a nearby college or a tech school that has SOME type of hands-on PLC lab set up – and take a semester or so of training there ... you'll have a lot more time to practice and absorb the material – and possibly receive help in finding a job ... be sure to spend EXTRA time and effort in the lab ... use the opportunity to get as much "hands on" experience using the school's hardware and software as possible ... go further (much further) than what the instructor is "officially" trying to teach you – and use the forum to help answer any "above and beyond" questions that you come up with ...

in closing ...

I've already received an email from the OP about this subject – and I'll be answering that later today ... so again, thank you for the kind referrals – but the OP really needs to explore other resources to help him meet his stated career goals ...

peace ...

Ron,

I know you are in the twilight of your career, but in the past, did you ever consider or in fact practice on-site training for employers?

It can sometimes be more cost effective to pay the trainer to come on-site, rather than pay many employees to travel a distance for training. A lot of trainers will provide this service nowadays. I have had a couple come to me just for 1-to-1 even, but that is NOT cost effective, but very beneficial. I can appreciate your "camp" is kitted out for all their needs, and logistically you would have to lug training kits, etc., but I was just curious if you had ever considered/practiced it?

Regards,
George

Sometimes the trouble of doing onsite training, is that the participants can't be dedicated enough to the training. There every day jobs at the site pull then out of training for something or the other. When you're away from the plant, you can dedicate your focus to that.

Dhulfiqar said:

Hi ,

I just arrived 4 months ago to the united States and I'm looking for PLC boot camp gives me guaranteed job after I got certified.Actually I dont know if there is like this chance here because I new in California.also I worked with Siemens company when I was in my country so I have started lately working in PLC and I have gotten courses in Germany I like it so much and I want to go ahead and finished what I started in my country.can some one help me in this matter any helping links or contacts.

any answer would be highly appreciated

Thanks

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First of all, no training will guarantee you a job.

Talk to local career tech, vo tech schools and do the training there, they are pretty cheap and often have internships available.

As to what brand, look through the vacancies in your area and see what they ask for. In the US it might very well be AB, but you never know..

jkerekes said:

Sometimes the trouble of doing onsite training, is that the participants can't be dedicated enough to the training...

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That's very true John and I can confess to that personally. There are some things only I can do or that I always get called for, even when off-site or on the opposite shift. So while receiving 1-to-1 or group on-site training I have had to excuse myself a couple of times, even though others were there to cover the plant.

I'm sure it bugs a trainer to have students coming and going, losing continuity or having to wait until they return. They still get paid, but to a true teacher, this would be frustrating.

On the contrary, I have also had an on-site trainer who spent a lot of time during the week on their phone or checking emails. So it is a definite problem alright, in both regards.

For my experience, I still found that the benefits of having your own personal trainer for the week far outweighed the couple of nuisance interruptions. I could garnish far more in I this setting by skipping through or passed the course material that I was already proficient in. I could tailor the training more toward the areas I had specific interest in learning more about.

But I digress,

I'm more discussing now the benefits of 1-to-1 on-site training than the benefits of on-site training in general.

An on-site trainer can also get a good feel for the environment and equipment the students need to upskill for. They can be shown real world issues that they face on a daily basis and perhaps zone in more on the necessary skills required.

In general, I do not like prescribed courses that much. They tend to bore me quite quickly. A lot depends on the course level and of course the trainer themselves. Prescription is fine at the basic and somewhat interim levels, but once you go more advanced I prefer a dynamic training experience. A more tailored approach to the students needs. Quality, not quantity.

I am sure that whether I partook in a course with Ron in an on-site, off-site, 1-to-1 or group setting, it would not be boring.

I suppose when deciding on whether to go with on-site or off-site training there is a cost-to-benefit ratio to be considered by both parties.

I was just curious whether Ron had ever bothered making this consideration?

Regards,
George

P.s. I think the OP's good but somewhat broken English is being slightly misunderstood. I don't think they want a guarantee from a course that they will get a job, but more they want a course that can help guarantee them a much better chance of getting a job. Something most courses should at least be able to guarantee. Just my reading of it?

jkerekes Right on.

I have taught maintenance classes for 20 years. Every time we tried to teach in plant the students were taken out for something more pressing.
Any more I refuse to do on site instruction.

One recent notable exception is a local auto plant. I am doing the electrical apprentice program for the UAW. The UAW coordinator does a commendable job both organizing and keeping students in their seats.
It's a real pleasure working with these guys.

foreword ... I've been typing this up in-between other projects ... I'll answer more questions later – as time permits ...

from Geospark:

did you ever consider or in fact practice on-site training for employers?

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yes, in fact I used to do quite a bit of "onsite" training ... then two or three years ago I modified my website and took away each and every reference to "onsite" training ... now - no more ... please – no more ... there were several reasons ...

number one – I missed the funeral for my favorite aunt, Aunt Gladys ... relatives whom I hadn't seen in years flew in from all across the country – but I couldn't make it to the service ... I was stuck up in the far north doing onsite training ... and I also missed the funeral for my younger sister who passed away unexpectedly ... once again, I was stuck far away from my home and my family when they needed me ...

I was away from my wife so much that I was afraid that she might realize that she could get along just fine without me ... (try talking your wife through changing the 9-volt battery in the smoke detector over the phone ... you just KNOW that she's going to fall off the chair and break a leg) ...

TIP: my little wife likes Hershey's Chocolate Kisses – the ones with the almonds in them ... before each trip I'd buy a big bag – then put ten or twelve pieces into a bunch of zip-lock sandwich bags ... I'd hide these around the house ... then later when we'd talk on the phone, I could cheer the little lady up by surprising her with another hiding place (look under the second teacup on the top shelf, etc.) ... learn the rules – play by the rules – when the rules change – learn the rules – play by the rules ... 23 years of happy marriage – and counting ...

It can sometimes be more cost effective to pay the trainer to come on-site, rather than pay many employees to travel a distance for training.

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fortunately (I prefer to say "blessedly") I don't need to cultivate new customers anymore ... those YouTube videos (thank you, Archie) have put me up high enough on the Google rankings that I'm now forced to turn away at least 50% of the training work that gets offered to me ... there's no way that I can handle it all – and there are plenty of customers who think absolutely nothing of paying to send their employees all the way to Charleston, SC for a week of "intense and demanding" PLC training ... my prices, the plane fare, the hotels, etc. - are all considered "peanuts" when compared to an hour or so of their plants' "downtime" ...

warning – politics coming up ...

[politics on] back when the political profile used to be Senate = Democrats; House of Representatives = Democrats; White House = Democrats; then things were different ... I (like many other business people) did whatever I had to do – "onsite" training included ... then the Republicans moved into the House of Representatives ... two days later my phone started ringing – and (blessedly) it hasn't stopped ringing since ... [/politics off]

I can appreciate your "camp" is kitted out for all their needs, and logistically you would have to lug training kits, etc.,

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yep, George, you have hit the proverbial nail squarely on its proverbial head ... I weighed the lab equipment once-upon-a-time ... it was well over 3,000 pounds ...

and (as you guessed) I was the individual who had to take it all down – put it into the shipping crates – dolly it all outside - and then up the ramp into the Penske rental truck ... about 8 to 10 hours of manual labor ...

then I had to drive the truck 12 to 14 hours or so off to the jobsite ... TIP: up in Indiana they don't "fix" the highways – instead they just put up a sign: "WARNING! ROUGH PAVEMENT AHEAD!" ... how on earth does THAT help me? ... a 16-foot Penske truck loaded with over 3,000 pounds of lab equipment "bottoms out" whenever it hits one of those monumental potholes – even at just 55 miles per hour ...

once at the jobsite, then I personally had to take everything off the truck – and set it all up ... the company had promised me two guys with hand trucks to help ... they got called on their walkie-talkie to go count battery chargers instead ... (I am NOT making this stuff up) ...

then I'd teach the classes (trust me, that's the EASY part of the job) ...

then I'd personally have to take everything all down and put it all back onto the truck ...

then drive back to Charleston ...

then take everything off the truck – and set it all up again back at my home lab ...

but I was just curious if you had ever considered/practiced it?

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yep ... been there – done that ... I won't say "NEVER" – but I hope and pray that I won't ever be forced to do it again ... I'll just leave out the details of the "kick the can" contest going on in the hallway outside my hotel room – at 2:00 o'clock in the morning ... let's just say that 20 or 30 little twelve-year old boys in town for a swim meet – and fueled on raw adrenalin – have absolutely ZERO respect for someone who's got to teach a PLC class the next morning ...

from jkerekes:

Sometimes the trouble of doing onsite training, is that the participants can't be dedicated enough to the training. There every day jobs at the site pull then out of training for something or the other. When you're away from the plant, you can dedicate your focus to that.

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yep, that is a BIG/HUGE issue ... but even away from the plant I'm now starting to have problems with people constantly having to pull out their cell phones for text messages ... too much of that nonsense and I make the students check their phones over on the break table ... sort of like making the cowboys check their six-shooters before they can come into the saloon ...

there's actually another dynamic involved with onsite training that seldom gets mentioned ... there's invariably a sort of "pecking order" amongst the employees – and sometimes that interferes with the quality and the quantity of the training that can be accomplished ... once everyone is "away" from the jobsite – and on unfamiliar turf – then the so-called "top guns" don't seem to be so intimidating to those who are considered to be lower down on the totem pole ...

so ... onsite training ... well, thanks for asking – but hopefully (prayerfully) that particular chapter of my life is behind me now ...

Ron Beaufort said:

TIP: up in Indiana they don't "fix" the highways – instead they just put up a sign: "WARNING! ROUGH PAVEMENT AHEAD!"

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Other than 4 years away in the Army I have spent my 45+ years in Indiana and can attest this to be an absolute truth and hasn't changed at all.

bob1371 said:

Other than 4 years away in the Army I have spent my 45+ years in Indiana and can attest this to be an absolute truth and hasn't changed at all.

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at least they are nice enough to put a sign up. we dont get that luxury down here in louisiana.

We had a 36 ft self contained trailer with heat, AC, air comp and a 3 phase generator so unlike Ron we didn't have to schlep all our stuff.

Pennsylvania roads rank right up there with the best that Indiana or Michigan have to offer.

sounds "stylish" ...

from gas:

We had a 36 ft self contained trailer with heat, AC, air comp and a 3 phase generator so unlike Ron we didn't have to schlep all our stuff.

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I'd love to see some pictures of that ...

I thought seriously about doing something along those lines – but I chickened out – mostly because of the insurance issues involved ... every insurance company that I talked to kept saying dirty words like "inland marine policy" ... basically they insisted on considering my trailer full of high-tech equipment as something like a ship at sea ... they expected it to sink, burn to the waterline, be boarded by pirates, or towed away by thieves in the night ... the price for insurance for something like that was totally unaffordable ...

along the same lines ...

I was often asked: "Why do you always rent a Penske truck? ... Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy one of your own to haul the gear?" ...

well, suppose that I'm traveling (on the weekend naturally) to a jobsite – and MY truck breaks down ... now I'm stuck beside the highway trying to get Goober or Gomer to come tow me into the nearest town – and hope that I can get someone to fix it (once again, on the weekend naturally) in time to keep my schedule ...

on the other hand, if the rental truck breaks down, I just dial a toll-free number and Penske drives up in a replacement truck ... we stretch one of the loading ramps between the rear ends – and transfer the cargo ...

anyway ... the rental truck – and the gas – and the mileage charge – and the insurance – were all included in my quote for the customer's "onsite" expenses ... so "cheaper" had nothing to do with the calculations ...

This thread is one of the reasons I still come here and read this stuff, and I haven't really touched a PLC for 10 years. Ron, thanks for the knowledge and more importantly for me. The entertainment.