I have had many different types of training for the various jobs that I have had before and during College. The two most distinct trainings that come to mind were the trainings I did for my internship at PCL construction, as well as the trainings that I did while I was working part-time at Harbor Freight.
First off, I want to say that of the various onboarding trainings I have done, Harbor Freight’s was by far the most intense for the Job itself. The first day was 8 hours of module based training on the standard operating procedure for the company as a whole as well as my role. This was not an engaging process, and I found myself overwhelmed with information that I was not able to take in entirely.
This is countered with the training that I received for my Summer Internship at PCL construction. The only real training besides my half-day orientation (which was mainly getting my computer and filling out paperwork) was the safety training I had to complete before arriving on site, which took about 2.5 hours. This training was more manageable, as I was able to pretty much only focus on the safety side of things, and it was a more gradual process than the Harbor Freight onboarding process, which felt like trying to drink from a fire hose.
In terms of the actual Job-specific training, I felt like Harbor Freight had a good system once I was over the actual hump of the onboarding process. Using technology-assisted on-the-job training, I was able to start learning the layout of the warehouse, while actually starting to stock the shelves and learning about how the Inventory system works. When there were new tasks to accomplish such as unloading a truck day, or updating the shelves with a new planogram, my manager stayed on top of me completing the online training module before, and then working with an experienced associate to take on the new task.
At my internship at PCL, the learning curve was a lot steeper, and to give them credit, it is very difficult to create a training program for construction management at any given point on a project, especially with no experience. The trainings that I did have were mostly about safety, or the company’s policies, and didn’t really pertain to what was going on on the job at a given moment. This made it a challenge but very engaging for me to learn and work to make myself an asset for my boss, which ended up being a very fulfilling summer.
Overall, I think that Harbor Freight had a more effective job-specific training program and that PCL had a more engaging onboarding process. I enjoyed the technology-assisted on-the-job training at Harbor Freight and felt that was quite effective in teaching me each activity.
