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August 30, 2004,
Denver,
CO -- Compliance Solutions
Occupational Trainers, Inc., a Denver, Colorado based safety and health
training firm is now offering a money-back guarantee for any company that
purchases their online
certification courses. Now companies that have been shy about venturing into
the world of cyberspace training can do so without worrying about if their
training company is up to their standards..
"Many firms are reluctant to try online
training because it's new technology or because they have been burned by
"web-based" companies that sold them a bill of goods", says Jeffrey Kline, the
company's President and CEO. Finding competent online training has become something of
an issue as increasingly, many companies look to reduce the ongoing cost of
training employees. This paradigm shift has more and more companies relying on outside organizations to provide safety training for their employees and,
like most things you don't check out thoroughly, it's riddled with perils.
Paying Instructors, purchasing equipment and
renting space to conduct training is as costly to employers as it is to
training firms, so much so that a new breed of self proclaimed "web-based"
trainers are clamoring to provide Hazmat training. Some even insist, contrary
to OSHA regulations that all your safety training
can all be done online. So, should you jump right in? First, it's
a good idea to do your homework.
"These guys are getting pretty savvy with their
marketing and their sales pitches", says Kline of these companies. "You
need to watch out for companies that spend a lot of time trying to talk you out of proven methods
and be especially wary of companies that hide behind technicalities", referring to training
companies who tell you to ignore OSHA suggestions.
"There's a reason why reputable training
companies spend the money they do to provide in-depth, hands-on training, especially
when you're training people who
are new to the industry or courses like HAZWOPER ( an acronym for Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency
Response training). Sure it's more expensive to employ trainers and provide
live training, but if you provide the right mix of online to instructor-lead training
you get the results your employees need." ,says Kline. "All too often, companies who are just trying to
comply with regulations receive bad advice or, worse" cautions Kline. " We
even know of one company who absolutely swears that the 40-hour
HAZWOPER can and should be done without ANY hands-on training, that's totally
irresponsible", says Kline
Greg Musgraves, Vice President of Safety for
the company explains further; "You just can't put people with no Hazmat experience in the
field and "hope" they get PPE and instrumentation training from their
Supervisors, like these online companies would have you believe. That's our responsibility and we take it very, very seriously"
said Musgraves, "You have to wonder what their motivation is. When you weigh
the few extra bucks they're making by not hiring Instructors and do it the way
OSHA says, against your employee's safety it just doesn't add up. Personally, I don't
know how they sleep at night."
Musgraves is referring to one method of online training that is becoming
increasingly popular; referred to in the industry as "blended learning".
This advanced type of training allows employees to complete the "book work"
online and when they are done, participate in an instructor lead
course complete hands-on training and have the Instructor tie the learning concepts together. This method is especially
effective with hazmat training curriculum where a large amount of the
material is either technical or impossible to demonstrate online.
Is this approach to training
working for Compliance Solutions and does it cost more for the employer? "The funny thing is, we don't charge any more
than our competition does for a class they run totally online , they don't provide ANY practical training. The
industry we're in (referring to the hazmat training community) is pretty tight knit, and that's a good thing. I
really don't worry about the competition, putting us out of business. Once
employers see what they get for their money, and once the see the difference
in our training, they'll put themselves out of
business," adds Kline with a smile, "The reason we got to be
the largest private Hazmat
training firm in the U.S. is because of our focus on providing options and
quality for our Customers. Our online training really does provide the best of
both worlds."
"There are courses you can take completely on
the web, like general safety and refresher courses. It's cost effective for
the employer, convenient for the employee and it does provide a sufficient
level of instruction. The difference between us and them is that we don't try
and employ a "one size fits all" approach to hazmat training. For example, the 40-Hour HAZWOPER has 32-hours
of online instruction and then we follow up with 8-hours of classroom with an Instructor.
Because of our size, the students can choose from classes in any one of 56 cities. We're the
only company I know of that does that" says Musgraves.
Apparently, Compliance Solutions is willing to
put their online training "on the line" in more ways than one. "Because so
many companies have had bad experiences, or they just don't know anything
about online training, we offer a money-back guarantee on all of our Online
Certification Courses. If a customer starts training and finds out it's not
for them, we'll give them their money back, or if they prefer, we'll enroll
them in a traditional
training course. I'd like to see our competition do that" says
Kline.
For more information Compliance Solutions
online training guarantee, contact them at 800-711-2706 or go online at
www.csregs.com
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