Training for a pavement management system: Experiences from New Zealand

Road & Transport Research, Mar 2003 by Pradhan, Nabin K, Wilson, Douglas J, Dunn, Roger C M

A new training course was developed specifically to help RCA personnel evaluate and monitor the work of the service provider, and to appreciate what kind of feedback should be given to the modeller, thereby adding value to the modelling work undertaken.

A 'Technical Guide for Client Personnel' handbook was subsequently developed and provided to the client end users as part of the course. In addition, special case studies, hands-on computer exercises and training presentations were prepared as an integral part of the training course material.

Three client training courses were held in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin during Phase IV of the project. The course content was highly appreciated by the trainees and in general very positive feedback was received.

Participation in training courses

As already stated, the number of trainees on the courses dropped significantly after the first two phases of the project, as the bulk of the initial demand of users had already been met in Phase II (see Figure 4). Only one standard training course was conducted in Phase III and two in Phase IV in comparison to 11 in Phase II.

IPENZ accreditation of training courses

The PMS training courses provided by HTC were submitted and subsequently accredited by the Institute of Professional Engineers, New Zealand (IPENZ). The training materials and courses have a program of ongoing improvement based on the feedback from the participants and the regular updating of the refined system, which ensures that the PMS users in New Zealand are provided with the best quality of training and up-to-date training materials.

Regional user group conferences

As workshops were found to be a very fruitful form of training in terms of sharing information, five inaugural regional user group conferences, using a workshop format, were undertaken in Phase III (Year 2000/2001) of the project.

The user conferences were developed for the purposes of on-going training, as it was envisaged that the demand for standard training courses would diminish with time. The user conferences were subsequently planned to keep the momentum going and as an effective tool for educating and informing the users of the latest developments within the NZ dTIMS system. Furthermore, the user conferences helped to share the growing experience and skill base, which additionally, provided valuable feedback for further development and refinement of the system. The other main objectives of the user conferences were to:

* Develop co-ordination and co-operation between users;

* Promote the system amongst those RCAs not committed to date; and,

* Promote ownership of the model to users.

The local flavour of each regional workshop was aimed at achieving the maximum participation of the PMS technical users, many of whom (it was found) were facing similar types of problems. Specific topics requiring discussion in the workshop were identified and discussed after short presentations on various relevant issues.

The decision to onduct regional conferences rather than a national conference was to generate discussion and dialogue among the users, even though the numbers attending each at location would be significantly less than at a national conference. Furthermore, the regional users conference would attract more users in total, as they would not have to travel far to attend. Inaugural regional user conferences were held in five different locations throughout NZ and have averaged 25 attendees.