How much would you folks charge to train industrial automation to young adults ?

Cydog · May 22, 2022

Good Evening ,

I have been asked to do some teaching at a community college for industrial automation for some young adults. I'm thinking 2 nights a week , 2 hours each night , for 2- 3 months.

Have any of you done this before , and how much do you charge ? By the
hour or by the class ?

This is really what I have a desire to do, in my retirement years. If you
have done this, what was experiences like ?

Thanks so much , and have a great week.

I_Automation · May 22, 2022

I have never taught a class, but the people I have trained that wanted to learn I never charged.

I would ask the school what their pay range is and go for the middle. Ask other professionals teaching there and see what they get paid.

Plus keep in mind a 2 hour per day class would take much more than 2 hours of your time that day, and some of your time on days without a class. I would figure 4 hours class time you are estimating could be 8 and up to 12 hours a week for you, so figure that in to what you request if that extra time is not paid.

Steve Bailey · May 22, 2022

Start with the same pay scale they use for adjunct faculty, assuming the school has already created the course and has the lab equipment necessary to conduct it.
If you're starting from a clean sheet of paper to create a course that doesn't already exist, you should get paid for that work in addition to being paid to teach it and given a budget to purchase the necessary equipment for hands-on training.

kalabdel · May 22, 2022

I was recently listening to podcast on embedded programming and the guest was asked about his youtube tutorials and how long it takes him to prepare for each episode, his answer was: approximately one hour for each minute.

I imagine for someone who doesn't have an already developed and well practiced course, it would take at least as much time and effort.

drbitboy · May 22, 2022

kalabdel said:
his answer was: approximately one hour for each minute.

I imagine for someone who doesn't have an already developed and well practiced course, it would take at least as much time and effort.

+1

You will be lucky to get minimum wage.

jaden · May 22, 2022

I am an adjunct instructor teaching Continuing Ed. (non credit) classes at our local Community College. I have gotten paid for some of the course development time over the years. Pay for classes is by the hour. Overall, it pays well, but I won't get rich on it. Mine are typically 3 day, 8 hour a day classes. Rates may already be set at your college.

plcisgreat · May 22, 2022

I've been an Instructor for several years with credit courses and now Business and Industry trainer for non-credit. Internally they proposed $55/hr to attract Instructors from the credit side which is a hard sell due to their course load. To make the numbers work, you're looking at a minimum of 6 applicants to run the course. We charge by contact hour. 40 hour non-credit course x ???, minimum of 4 applicants. What I like about non-credit courses is that the applicants WANT to be there and you don't have to spoon feed the information. Most people we train have a maintenance background and we customize trainings to meet the clients needs. Good luck.

jaden · May 22, 2022

I will echo that the non credit motivation is great.

GaryS · May 23, 2022

I may be interested
In the past I was Red Cross first aid instructor Ambulance and rescue instructor
over 20 years doing automation controls
if interested PM me

Ronnie Sullivan · May 23, 2022

I found that 8 hours is too long to teach students - or in my case 2 separate students.
They lose focus at about the 4 hour mark.
There is a lot to learn and it gets hard quickly.
I originally was booked for 8 hours, 1 day a week at 2 companies to teach their apprentice. (from scratch)
This changed to 4 hours a week after I saw that after that time they saw it as a chore and not much went in. (it was sometimes extended if we hadn't quite finished)
I charged my normal hourly rate and travel and we built a pretend system on a big wooden board while I was there. (using all their equipment)
There was no finish date, it was left to me to decide when they were competent enough to go into the plant and fault find and change things etc.
It took 6 months before that happened.
One of them will now only plug in to fault find and no programming.
And the other is confident enough to do both.

arpus4KM · May 23, 2022

Ronnie Sullivan said:
I found that 8 hours is too long to teach students - or in my case 2 separate students.
They lose focus at about the 4 hour mark.
There is a lot to learn and it gets hard quickly.
I originally was booked for 8 hours, 1 day a week at 2 companies to teach their apprentice. (from scratch)
This changed to 4 hours a week after I saw that after that time they saw it as a chore and not much went in. (it was sometimes extended if we hadn't quite finished)
I charged my normal hourly rate and travel and we built a pretend system on a big wooden board while I was there. (using all their equipment)
There was no finish date, it was left to me to decide when they were competent enough to go into the plant and fault find and change things etc.
It took 6 months before that happened.
One of them will now only plug in to fault find and no programming.
And the other is confident enough to do both.

Good experience here.

Also, for timing, if you plan to go in and teach a class somewhere during a workday, be sure it's at the back half of the workday and not the front half, you'll have more of the guys ready to take a seat and listen a bit more, as opposed to just showing up to work in the morning and starting the day sitting down with the expectation that they'll be getting up to head back to work after dealing with the mental issues of the morning.

mk42 · May 23, 2022

I know a few people who are adjunct faculty for medical techs at local community colleges, and if I recall it was 3-4k per class per semester. It sounds like a mix of classes with coursework prepared and them having to make it up themselves, usually on their own time (which I think is a load of BS)

If the school doesn't have any materials/curriculum available, many automation vendors will give solid discounts for stuff like that and can give you a kick start. Example: Siemens Overview

https://new.siemens.com/global/en/company/sustainability/education/sce.html
Siemens pre-built curriculum that pairs with their training kits

https://new.siemens.com/global/en/c...ducation/sce/learning-training-documents.html

Rson · May 23, 2022

I've taught as an Adjunct, and it is typically by the hour. It varies depending on experience and/or degree. Usually between $40-80 per hour. Classes are typically two nights a week, for 2 or 3 hours at a time. (so you either work 4 or 6 hours a week)

If you have to develop the class - keep in mind that is a huge undertaking. In my case, there are typically assignments, tests, syllabus, etc. that is already done for me I just have to put my name on them. Over time, I have added/subtracted to the coursework, but if you don't have a framework, I would charge much more.

Cydog · May 24, 2022

Thanks so much for all your advice .It is so discouraging to see the lack of effort in communities . Our community colleges , lack the effort to find these
folks jobs . They continue to be more interested in receiving grant money and keeping them in school.

We have a large manufacture coming into our area in 3 years , and really no effort to find young adults good jobs , and develop them . It is almost a strain of " Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy " . They just seem to keep them in a state of dependency .

I_Automation · May 24, 2022

Cydog said:
It is almost a strain of " Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy " . They just seem to keep them in a state of dependency .

My PLC training was being walked up to a machine with one in it, told "that's a PLC, here's the program - find out why it's not running and get it fixed." It was a PLC 2/30 big-box with 5 full racks of IO, including a modem for a PanelMate HMI.

I almost walked out on the spot, had to find out what a PLC was, then how it worked, then dig through the 2" thick printout offline and find out what output wasn't on and which input was causing it. Took 2 days but I got it running and was then officially the PLC expert there.

Later I was taken to a new machine without any controls and told to make a control panel and get it running - part 2 of my training.

How much would you folks charge to train industrial automation to young adults ?

Cydog

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