By Kevin Krupp
Management Services Committee Member
York Repair, Inc.
Bay City, Michigan 

As many of you already know, in late February EASA launched the EASA Online Learning Center, which includes an Electromechanical Repair Technician (ERT) Certificate Program. York Repair had been patiently waiting for the launch of these products to help us with the training of our new hires. Like many of you, we have seen several of our experienced technicians retire in the past few years. Fortunately, we have been able to retain some of them part-time. This is a huge knowledge and experience base to fill with people who have far less electric motor history.

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In the past two years, we have hired five new technicians and are excited to get them started on this new program. We quickly signed up for one General Learning Library subscription, one ERT Certificate Program subscription and one Company Manager/Reporter subscription to keep track of our training investment. We also set up several computers in conference rooms for the technicians. We kicked things off with one of our new technicians who was eager to learn and who agreed to pursue the ERT certificate program. This is a newer employee who has a mechanical background but was very green in the area of electric motors when we hired him in 2023. We set him up with a login for the program and his manager, my son Dakota, also reviewed the program. The first module that he worked on was the Vo-Tech Safety module. 

We quickly realized that we needed to carve out time weekly so that he could work on the content. Collaboratively, we decided to dedicate 2-3 hours on Friday afternoon during his workday to work on the ERT. Our new technicians report weekly to their supervisor on both what they set out to learn that week and what they accomplished. This includes both on-the-job training as well as ERT computer work. This particular technician is very eager to learn, and he tried to do some of the coursework at home on his own time and on his cell phone. It turns out that the cell phone, in our opinion, is not the best device on which to complete the coursework. We set him up on a used laptop with internet accessibility, and he is utilizing it to get ahead on the coursework. 

The process is new to our company and it is evolving quickly. We have always been very good at job shadowing and mentoring while supplementing with EASA’s excellent 2-day seminars and webinars. However, this new group of technicians is a step ahead of the speed we are accustomed to with training. The younger generation is hungry for knowledge, and they like to be able to control their own pace of learning. This is where digital learning fits in well, and we are excited to continue to mold our process and system. 

We just added a second ERT program license that we are using for another recently hired technician. We expect to have one or two more on the program in the coming months. Also, EASA just added some additional supervisor and management classes that we are going to investigate with our leadership team. Although this is a new product, the time is right for our company and the development of our technicians. I know that Craig Whitworth and the rest of the development team have been hard at work on launching these products and I think they did a great job of integrating much of the past work of EASA’s engineers as “The Electro-Mechanical Authority” into the new Online Learning Center! I would definitely recommend that any EASA member with new technicians (or seasoned technicians who want to raise their knowledge base), consider adding Online Learning Center products to supplement traditional on-the-job training and mentoring.