Endress+Hauser and the International Society of Automation (ISA), a non-profit professional association for leaders in industrial automation, announced their current and future collaboration efforts for training and certification. ISA will provide select certified training courses in conjunction with Endress+Hauser’s instrumentation training courses, with these courses offered onsite at Endress+Hauser’s process training units (PTUs) located across the United States.
“Combining a selection from the deep ISA training offering with the many choices of instrumentation training provided at Endress+Hauser’s world-class PTUs provides a powerful set of options for instrument technicians who need help with their professional development,” said Jerry Spindler, customer training manager, Endress+Hauser USA.
Combining strengths for advanced offerings
With the goal of advancing training of process industry personnel, Endress+Hauser has 11 PTUs across the United States. These full-scale, working process units offer hands-on experience with the types of configurations, operations, diagnostics and troubleshooting found in real-world process plants.
With this collaboration, ISA brings its advanced expertise in controls, valves, drives and other areas outside the Endress+Hauser portfolio to more students, and in a real-world setting. ISA will send a representative to the Endress+Hauser PTUs to teach the material with a seamless, holistic approach. This provides a one-stop-shop for training where learners can advance their technical education, eliminating the need for training from multiple vendors.
ISA has long been a provider of certification for automation professionals through its Certified Controls System Technician (CCST) strategy. The CCST program provides a non-biased, third-party, objective assessment and confirmation of skills for control systems technicians. Endress+Hauser and ISA will focus on providing training for Level 1 certification, which confirms that technicians possess a vast knowledge with respect to calibration, maintenance, repair and troubleshooting.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Endress+Hauser and leverage the strengths of our respective organizations,” said Geri McGrath, director of global education and outreach at ISA. “The combination of Endress+Hauser’s PTUs and ISA’s training services offers increased workforce development opportunities for industrial automation and control professionals.”
Additional offerings for a tailored approach
To get the most out of training, it’s important for learners to understand their specific needs because what strengthens one company’s employees may not be necessary for another. To address this and other issues, Endress+Hauser and ISA co-developed an online assessment tool for customized training. Designed for convenience and ease-of-use, the assessment generates a report highlighting personnel strengths and knowledge gaps for an organization. From there, representatives work with these organizations to create a training plan tailored to their specific needs. This online tool is being developed according to ISA’s CCST Body of Knowledge, and it will be offered through both the ISA and Endress+Hauser websites in 2022.
