Dedicated To Training by George Bradshaw Underground Construction has a long history of providing training for its employees. The training programs offer opportunities for learning new ideas and trades along with personal improvement. These programs are available to all employees from the field level to company officers. At Underground, training starts before new employees are assigned to a project. Each employee is put through a four-hour orientation that includes an introduction to Underground, what we do, and how to do it safely. Underground has developed both in-house and outside training programs to assist their employees. We offer in-house training programs for laborer certification, rigging, crane operation, truck driving, forklift operation, competent person, and directional drilling, just to mention a few. In addition, Underground makes use of organizations like FMI (Leadership, Marketing and Financial Seminars), AGC (Construction and Personnel Management Seminars), and Dale Carnegie (People Skills) to assist us in areas where we do not have the in-house expertise. Recently, I was fortunate to attend AGC's Advanced Management Program held at the Cooper Fitness Clinic in Dallas, Texas. This seminar was an intense eight-day program covering all aspects of the construction business, including its impact on our professional and personal life. We dealt with personal health, strategic planning, leadership, contract dispute resolution, organizational changes, financial management, safety, construction productivity, ethics, team building, reputation management, human resource management, and how to balance a family and work in the construction business. There were 38 participants in the program from 23 different states and Puerto Rico. All but two of the participants were from construction companies. This was the first year AGC representatives from the Army Corp of Engineers were invited to attend. The diversity of the group, age, background, experience and the quality of our instructors made this an extremely valuable experience. Many of Underground's engineers and managers are graduates of AGC's Advanced Management and Project Management programs, with more enrolled each year. This dedication to training is the best way to demonstrate the commitment we make to our employees. Underground's ultimate goal is to provide our clients with the best-trained personnel in the industry. |
