Hi,

We are currently using, on a temporary basis, external accredited MHE instructors to cope with a rush of training requirements and take pressure of our inhouse instructors. The external MHE instructors have a wealth of experience across many MHE and are using our paperwork to complete the training and are only coming in as and when required. They are not employed by us as a company, possibly described as 'hired' and just being used as a stop gap to help reduce the amount of training required.

My question is, would you consider their experience and competency adequate enough to come in and train without having a familiarization session on the MHE trucks on site, or would you ask them to complete a session on the trucks before they train our employees?

I have spilt opinion at our company and wanted some other expertise from like minded persons.

Thank you in advance. 

Hi Nicole,

As stated by yourself, they have a wealth of experience. If the company they work for has provided you the relevant accreditation to offer the service and traing records of their instructors (you are looking for competence), then that is a good start.

What type of MHE equipment are you using? If it's standard forklift trucks then I would not expect any instructor to go through a session to familiarise themselves.

My suggestion is to shadow the instructor and see what the training looks like first hand and make a judgement on how to proceed - or do nothing, which is sometimes the best course of action.

Hi Nicole 

I guess your organisation is part of a very small minority in having enough demand to employ in-house instructors for such training.

So, the norm would be either to send each trainee to a trainer somewhere else, or to bring in an external trainer to train a group of people.

In either case what the buyer would be checking is that the trainer is accredited to train on a class of equipment - e.g. counterbalanced fork truck - then the training would be considered appropriate whatever the make of counterbalanced fork truck - BUT would need to be supplemented with familiarisation with each make of such FLT.

So, let's say for example that the equipment you want people trained in is high level order pickers, then you want trainers who are accredited to train in the use of such equipment and then you need to give them such site induction as you tailor for any other visiting worker.