Want your newly hired miners to really remember their training? Need to train a worker to perform a new task, such as operating a dozer, and later know how to perform that task in the field? Want to find a way to speed-up that process of remembering and learning?
If so, this post is for you, my friend.
Getting a newly hired miner up to speed on all of the critical aspects of mining and mining safety is a tough job. If you’re a safety manager in charge of safety training at a mine site, you already know this.
But what should you do about it? One of the smartest things you can do is to use training methods that are PROVEN to work better with learners who are new to the content area. In this case, that means new to safety issues related to working at your mine, and/or related to working a specific task at your mine site.
We’ll be writing a series of articles explaining different techniques for getting these “novice learners” up to speed in the coming weeks. In this post, we’ll look at one of the most effective: using visuals in your mining training.
And hey, don’t forget to download the Free Guide to MSHA Training Requirements at the bottom of this article.
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Learning experts have conducted many studies that begin with two groups of people, both novices in a specific content area. Each group was trained on the same topic, and that training covered all the same concepts using the exact same words. However, the training provided to one group included no visuals, while the training provided to the other group included visuals.
After the training, the people in each group were given tests to determine what they learned. The results were dramatic–the people who completed training that included visuals learned significantly more than the people in the other group did.
(See note at bottom of article for source information.)
Well-designed safety training visuals can definitely make it easier for miners to learn important mining safety topics more quickly and more comprehensively.
For example, check out the small sample below taken from a Physical Characteristics of Surface Mines online training course. You can see for yourself–no pun intended–how much more effective the visuals make this safety training on surface mine characteristics.
You can imagine how well this could of mining safety training with rich visuals would work for other mining safety training topics, too.
You can use this tip when you’re creating training materials on your own–just remember to add relevant visuals to your training materials. Or, you can work with a training provider to add media-rich training materials with visuals to supplement the training materials you already have.
If you want some tips for doing this on your own, check out the following posts, both of which give a LOT of information about this:
Let us know if you’d like to get more information about our online MSHA training course options, including:
And hey, since you made it to the bottom of the article, why not download our free guide to MSHA online training below?
Download our Free Guide to MSHA Training Requirements below before you go.
Download our free guide to learn about MSHA, the MSHA Part 46 and 48 training requirements, and how to use online tools to satisfy MSHA Parts 46 and 48.
Jeff Dalto, Senior Learning & Performance Improvement Manager
Jeff is a learning designer and performance improvement specialist with more than 20 years in learning and development, 15+ of which have been spent working in manufacturing, industrial, and architecture, engineering & construction training. Jeff has worked side-by-side with more than 50 companies as they implemented online training. Jeff is an advocate for using evidence-based training practices and is currently completing a Masters degree in Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning from Boise State University. He writes the Vector Solutions | Convergence Training blog and invites you to connect with him on LinkedIn.
