How to set up your own technician training room

Who taught you the trade? Who took the time and patience for you to learn what most people will never understand yet contributes to a standard of living in this great country that makes even low-income folks exist in conditions that would make a medieval king green with envy — plumbing, electrical, heating and air-conditioning? We damn well owe it to the future to pass these skills along, and, as

I've said before, the statistics are for every four people leaving the trades, only one is comin' in.

Imagine what a wonderful gift it would be to give another human being the chance to earn the pride, the confidence, the life our trades offer! Here's one easy way you can: Previously we've shown how to find one (or a couple) good folks with the right attitude but lacking skills ... for the moment. They're ridin' around in the truck with us, or one of our experienced techs, doin' the heavy lifting; fetchin' and carryin'; preparing and cleaning up our job sites; and learning the tricks-of-the-trade.

They might be so talented that you'd like to streamline their training. You could send 'em to a tech or trade school, even enroll 'em in a state apprenticeship program, or you could tackle the job yourself, and that might not be as difficult as you imagine.

Because I'm a plumber, I'm going to layout how I did this in my company to get folks with no experience up-'n-runnin' in as little as six months to a year. However, I facilitate a group of Service Roundtable contractors online that also includes HVAC and electrical owners, and they say they could possibly accomplish gittin' folks out on their own even faster than plumbers by mimicking what I did.

So, plumbers: Buy two sawhorses and a ⅝-in. or ¾-in. thick 4-ft. x 8-ft. piece of plywood. Nail the plywood to the sawhorses. Git an old stainless steel double-compartment sink and an old garbage disposer and mount 'em on the left. Place an old used dishwasher under the plywood just to the right of the sink. Next, mount an old basin. Then mount a closet flange to pull and replace a toilet bowl. (Even better for the toilet is to use a separate 4-ft. x 4-ft. piece of plywood and mount it two or three feet off the floor.) Place an old water heater to the right of all that.

Now here's a little plumbing trick that makes training so easy it's almost fun. On a wall up against where you're going to build this little “training center,” mount some ¼-in. plywood or Masonite so you can screw any sized floor flange onto it — ½-in., ¾-in., 1-in., or 1½-in. for drains. I built my “training center” in one day with a helper. Now you have your stub-outs and can train your new folks with hands-on work, work that can be removed and replaced again and again. You can even mount as many floor flanges as you want to simulate different stub-out locations. If anyone wants a crude drawing of what I'm talking, about just e-mail to [email protected] and I'll send it to you.

I sent a lot of my guys to our state PHCC school for training and invariably they were way ahead of their class when it came to actual hands-on; and, let's face it, you do not have to know that much code to remove-and-replace.

Don't get me wrong; I'm a huge proponent of knowing code. I was a member of the International Association of Plumbing & Mechanical Officials for almost all of my 30 years in business, so much of my in-house training demanded code knowledge. I even gifted the more than $200 Universal Plumbing Code Illustrated Plumbing Guide to anyone who completed six months of training.

I did not cut any legal corners, yet I did not lose money waiting for bureaucrats or bureaucracy to “be my friend.” You can do the same.

More fun next time, and if you ain't havin' fun, remember: The guy down the street might just be lookin' for a high-paid manager .

Best,

'Ol Ed

Ed O'Connell is the founder emeritus of O'Connell Plumbing Inc. He is the subcontracting business coach for smaller contractors and a Service Round Table Coach. He can be reached in Auburn, California, at home/office: 530/878-5273 or at [email protected].