INDUSTRY NEWS

Electricity Forum Training Institute: Addressing Your Training Requirements Is Our #1 Objective

And late last year, our company formalized our forums and conferences and training under what is now known as the The Electricity Forum Training Institute (EFTI), which is already one of Canada's leading providers of electrical continuing engineering education.

The creation of EFTI is in response to requests from employers (electric utilities, large power users, consulting engineering firms and electrical construction companies) and their electrical employees for CEF to offer a more structured, educational program format for our many courses.

The EFTI has assembled a faculty of instructors who have real-world experience in their respective areas of interest, as well as having extensive experience in presenting courses/seminars in Canada and around the world.

EFTI is constanctly setting new standards in electrical continuing education from basic theoretical information to practical hands-on equipment training. Our courses have made a substantial impact on the level of training and education in Canada's leading electricity providers and consuming companies. By upgrading the occupational skills of electrical workers, EFTI training courses have improved the carreer path of many electrical personnel, as well as contributed to an improvement in electricity efficiency and plant productivity and overall competitiveness of Canadian industry.

Our mission is the continued educational development of electrical technical professionals across Canada. In a rapidly evolving world where technology is changing at an ever-increasing pace, our courses keep our students current their various areas of interest, allowing them to stay competitive and productive.

CEU Accreditation
To this end, EFTI has been granted formal recognition by the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) as a Participating Partner in EIC's Technical Professional Development Program.

Commencing January 1, 2002, course delegates will receive CEU credit for their participation

Each year, more than 1,000 electrical professionals from across Canada attend CEF courses. Now, our delegates will be able to earn Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits for their course participation.

A plus to our EIC accreditation is that our course participants are audited by the Engineering Institute of Canada to ensure that our courses meet our stated learning objectives and that students are receiving a high quality product. It is very important to us that our students are well educated.

Levels of Education
Electrical professionals have varying levels of education, training and experience. Their areas of interest and specialization also vary. That is why we are dedicated to providing different levels of education to best suit the individual needs of students. The EFTI is developing three levels of continuing education: Basic, Intermediate and Advanced.

Basic Level
Our basic level of educational courses, otherwise known as "distance learning" courses, include internet based, on-line courses as well as mail-in "correspondence" courses that are supervised and graded by our program directors. Each course completion is rewarded with a certificate of completion. These on-line courses are awarded .5 CEU credits each.

Intermediate Level
Our intermediate level courses involve 2 classroom days of instruction and are awarded 1.2 to 1.4 CEU credits each.

Advanced Level
Our advanced level courses involve 3-4 classroom days of instruction and are awarded 2.1 to 2.8 CEU credits each.

Professional Electrical Development Certificates
Professional Electrical Development Certificates offered by EFTI are designed to recognize the effort and achievement of students who have completed courses in our areas of educational activity. To earn a certificate, students must accumulate a total of 8.0 CEU credits (80 hours of classroom instruction) in any of the following industrial electrical training courses that we currently offer, including:

• Application And Performance Of Electrical Distribution Equipment
• Grounding And Bonding For Industrial, Commercial And Institutional Electricity Users
• Motor Protection, Control and Maintenance Techniques Forum
• Implementing Successful Drive Applications
• PLC Installation, Operation, And Troubleshooting For Electrical Personnel
• Electrical Safety: Standards, Technquies and Technology
• Protection Of Distribution Systems
• Special Topics Related To Distribution Systems
• Substation Design, Commissioning and Control
• Electrical System Maintenance and Testing
• Techniques for Improving Power Quality in Modern Electrical Systems

Our instructors can work with your company in advance to determine the level of training and experience of your employees, as well as any specific applications that you would like covered. And we will guarantee the performance of our instructors, the quality of the documentation and your company's satisfaction.

I will be reporting to you later this year about other developments regarding our training efforts. We appreciate that training budgets are tight this year and we respect the time and effort and expense that companies and individuals make in order to attend our courses.

Give me your suggestions and ideas about how we can help your company with its training plans.

Randy Hurst
Publisher
Electricity Today
President
Electricity Forum Training Institute
rwh@istar.ca