Exploring Career Advancement in the Lifting Industry Through Industrial Training on Global Lifting Awareness Day

Intro

– [Ross Moloney] It’s only because a car has brakes that it can go faster. And so we are pushing out messages that show how far we as economies have come because of the improvements and developments that we as an industry have been able to make. And now we can see that because of the changes that we’ve made, we can now do almost impossible things.

– [JT Farley] I make a difference. When I leave changes are being implemented and I feel good knowing that they’re putting safety first after they’ve talked with me based on OSHA compliance. So that’s what I love about what I do.

– [Amanda Long] The piece of advice he gave me in that conversation has stuck with me and has allowed for me to advance my career to where I am today. To be able to be a industry resource. Know what you don’t know.

[Announcer] For your own safety, you are reminded to stand behind the yellow line.

– [Ben Hengst] Welcome to Safety Factor. My name is Ben Hengst and today is Global Lifting Awareness Day. This is a day to share your experiences in the lifting industry as a career worth pursuing. Because it is Global Lifting Awareness Day, we are doing things a bit differently on the podcast. A two-parter, first I’m joined again by the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association, or LEEA, CEO Ross Moloney to get a recap on last year’s Global Lifting Awareness Day. Then we’ll be taking a deep dive into career advancement opportunities through industrial training with Mazzella Customer Trainer, JT Farley. And Industrial Training International Vice President of Sales, Amanda Long.

What Is Global Lifting Awareness Day?

Ross, thank you again for joining. So let’s start with the basics. What is Global Lifting Awareness Day?

– [Moloney] So Global Lifting Awareness Day is the chance for us as this incredible, diverse, important, unique crazy industry to get together and actually talk about what we do. When you work in lifting, it’s something that we all have in common that when you’re at a party or you’re at a family reunion and somebody says to you, “what do you do?” And you start saying, “oh, I work in lifting.” There’s just like this aura of nervousness that you’re going to talk for too long, or this recognition that they’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. And that’s like a thing that’s universal across our industry and universal across the world, wherever you are.

But it’s described perfectly in the title. Ours is an industry that if it didn’t operate smoothly, you would know about it. Because your life would be very different. You might not live in the apartment block that you live in because it wouldn’t be there. You certainly wouldn’t be wearing the clothes you are, eating the foods that you are, because they just would not be arriving. And then you can get into, would you be using the same energy that you’re using? Would you be driving the same vehicle? Would you be holding the same phones to your ear? Your life would be fundamentally different.

But also if the things that we do routinely on a daily basis weren’t done to the high quality standard that they are done, stuff would snap, stuff would hit the ground, people would be injured and or die. And so we trying desperately to inject a bit of glamour and a bit of awareness into this incredible underpinning industry that is key to all of the supply chains that we’re aware of. But it’s delivered by a set of functions that few people think of.

What Were the Highlights of Last Year’s Global Lifting Awareness Day Event?

– [Hengst] So could you give us a bit of a recap of last year’s Global Lifting Awareness Day?

– [Moloney] Yeah, so Global Lifting Awareness Day is one of those things that if you Google it, you’ll go and find it. So the penetration that we had across the globe was just outstanding. And we had partners, your side of the Atlantic, our side right through to New Zealand going all the way east for us. And one of the joys of this is that, yeah, sure we as LEEA as a Global Trade Association are a key driver of it, but it’s not ours, right? It’s the industry’s awareness day. And so we had member companies of the association pushing messages, and then we had other associations using it to launch things that they did.

So the last year we were talking about challenges around recruitment. Engineering is one of those industries that government always worry about. They always see it as an opportunity to increase growth, et cetera, et cetera, it’s a high value added sector. And last year we really went really heavy on “young people come and work for us.” See this as something that you can develop a career in. Because so many times there are people that are looking for the next job. And our message last year was really about the pathway that is progression when you’re working in lifting, when you’re working at height, load lashing, restraint, et cetera.

So last year was really a fundamental thing where we invited members to talk about career opportunities and we saw loads of people put together really interesting content where they were talking about how they got into the industry, what they do on a daily basis, the places that they go, the people that they work with. And I thought some of the content, I mean right, I’m going to be biased, but the content was fascinating and it was as diverse as we are.

What Are the Goals of Global Lifting Awareness Day in 2024?

– [Hengst] So compared to last year, what are some of the goals of 2024 for this year’s Global Lifting Awareness Day?

– [Moloney] Our internal goals are the goals that we are talking about with our echo chamber. So with the industry, with people that know what we’re talking about. And we are prioritizing three things. The three things that we’re pushing are, respect the product. And what we’re saying there is that good quality product is available and bad quality product is available. And so we’re encouraging our industry to remember that good quality product matters.

We’re also reminding the industry that inspection and examination really does matter. That is, it’s easy to get a little bit carried away and think that things hardly ever fail. Things hardly ever fail because we as an industry have got on top of inspection and examination. And so we’re reminding people of the fundamental importance of mandatory legal, but also best practice inspection.

Our final point is that we are encouraging people to respect the experts and to respect the expertise. And so we’re really encouraging the industry to remember that training, CPD, ongoing skills acquisition is fundamental, not just to what we do, but also to where we go in the future. And they feel like they are pretty straightforward and everybody will be like, yeah, get it, get it. But some of it is the sort of thing that you don’t want your industry to forget.

How Has the Lifting Industry Evolved Over Time?

The other side of it is we work in an industry where we talk about health and safety and health and safety and risk mitigation and accident avoidance is one of those things that almost becomes a political debate. It can be seen as very big brother, it can be seen as big government, it can be seen as legislation going mad. And the argument we are making is that, it’s only because a car has brakes that it can go faster. And so we are pushing out messages that show how far we as economies have come because of the improvements and developments that we as an industry have been able to make.

And so we are pushing out iconic images to show how far we’ve come. So the first image that we’re pushing is a guy called Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who is recently voted as the second greatest ever British figure. And he was in many ways the father of the Industrial Revolution. He was the guy that really got into engineering, came up with innovative, huge scale projects that shaped the landscape of England. And he’s one of these Victorian fellas in the big hat with a big cigarette. The most iconic image of Brunel is when he is standing in front of just huge chain and its a chain at the launching of a ship, and it’s one of these ships that really was fundamental to Britain having its period of global dominance. And so that was in the 1800s. And you can see this old guy that dresses in a way that nobody ever dresses. And you just see the enormity of the engineering ambition.

And then we go right through, and one of later images that we talk about, we’ve got an image of the renovations that were at Tiffany in Manhattan. Where our industry literally puts a crane on top of a building in the middle of one of the busiest, most populous, richest cities in the world so that we can do these unbelievable engineering feats. And when you go back to the images that probably we all think of with the guys that are sitting on top of the steels in Manhattan having their lunch and their idea of safety is that they’re wearing shoes. And now we can see that because of the changes that we’ve made, we can now do almost impossible things. We can do the sort of thing that Brunel would’ve just been agog at.

And so we are really pushing, and through this series of images and the video that we’ve put out, that our’s is an industry of evolution that leads to unbelievable progress. And so sometimes we have to do things that make sure that our people are safe, that can feel as if they’re just getting in the way. But our argument is because we get safer means we can go higher because we can go higher, means we can go deeper, means we can go further into different climates, into really inclement places. And so we are really pushing hard on how proud we are that our’s is an industry that has managed to marry together safety with innovation, we’ve not been hamstrung by looking after our people. Actually we look after our number one asset, which is our people, our skills, et cetera, et cetera. And we end up delivering unbelievable, remarkable society changing lifestyle enhancing solutions.

How Can Individuals and Companies Participate in Global Lifting Awareness Day?

– [Hengst] So how can individuals or companies participate in this year’s Global Lifting Awareness Day today?

– [Moloney] So we are encouraging individuals and members, organizations such as ourselves, members of them, or anyone else just to post about how remarkable and wonderful our industry is. And there’s a globalliftingawarenessday.com website where you can go and you can download some of the collateral that we’ve made and you’re more than happy to share that. But as much as possible, what we’re trying to do, is to really be the story that’s out there. What will make a sign of success is when I get home and my wife and children tell me that they saw LEEA and Global Lifting Awareness Day posting on Instagram or on LinkedIn, if we can reach non-users of lifting equipment, then we know that we’ve done something right.

– [Hengst] Ross, thanks again for joining.

How Can You Advance Your Career Through Industrial Training?

Many people think of the rigging industry as a physically demanding career. Blue collar work, construction sites, mills, and factories. While riggers and crane operators are probably the most important part of this industry, the industry itself is bigger than just that. Today we are going to look into the career advancement opportunities available through industrial training. Whether you’re doing the rigging work, operating the crane, selling the equipment, engineering, or more. How can you advance your career through industrial training?

I’m here with JT Farley, Mazzella Customer Trainer and Amanda Long, ITI Vice President of Sales. And we’re both going to talk a little bit about how you can advance your career through industrial training. Thank you both for joining.

– [Farley] Thank you for having us.

– [Long] Absolutely.

Who Are the Trainers and How Did They Enter the Lifting Industry?

– [Hengst] So this is Global Lifting Awareness Day and people are encouraged to share their experiences with the industry. So could you both introduce yourself and tell us how you got into this industry? And then side question, what do you enjoy about working within the lifting industry?

– [Farley] Well I’ll be a gentleman. Ladies first please, Amanda.

– [Long] All right, Thank you JT. So I grew up around the lifting industry, so I’ve been around cranes and rigging activities my entire life. When my dad used to run the crane and rigging group at a local petrochem facility here, that’s when you could still go to work with your parents. And I would sit under his desk and then go get in the crane. And, you know, I’ve always just been exposed to them.

And so my dad started a side business in training and I had the opportunity to get a lot of exposure to the education side and the actual craft training piece. So I’ve really been in and around the lifting industry, more on the support side, on the education side is where most of my exposure has come in. And that’s afforded me a lot of access to the actual activities going on in the field by either training them or seeing what our customers are doing.

And you know, the second part of your question is, I have such a passion for the need of the craft of crane and rigging, and I truly do feel that it is an art. So the critical thinking that goes into rigging activities and how you’re tasking the men and women of the field to go out there and make decisions that affect people’s lives and the art that is needed to do that correctly, along with, you know, the maneuvering of the machines, however big or small, they all have big impacts. So I truly have a passion for the art of crane and rigging. And then the safety and training aspect is what brought my dad home every day. So I just want to be able to be a part of it.

– [Hengst] JT how about you?

– [Farley] I was dared.

– [Hengst] You were dared.

– [Farley] I was actually dared. Right? I know, right, like most Americans. I was a training manager for a company and downsizing began to happen. And as that was taking place, I found myself looking. And one of my instructors came to me and they said, “JT why don’t you change industries? With your skills they could be used anywhere.”

I said, “No, I don’t think I want to change industries.” Because I was comfortable where I was. And then a week after she came to me and let me know that she wasn’t taking the downsizes ’cause we were actually being placed in other positions and so forth. So I took, you know, a step back, she said she wasn’t, and then she dared me. She said, “JT, I dare you to step outside this industry.” And here I am today.

– [Long] Interesting.

– [Farley] Yeah definitely, here I am coming up on a year in a couple of weeks with Mazzella Companies and it’s been a wonderful ride. I’m learning a lot from just everyone that I talk to. And the thing that I love about what I do. And I side with Amanda and she said, passion, and I have my own three P’s. Mine is people, purpose, and passion. I love people, I enjoy being in front of people and the the blessing about what I do for Mazzella is I make a difference. When I leave changes are being implemented and I feel good knowing that they’re putting safety first after they’ve talked with me based on OSHA compliance. So that’s what I love about what I do.

What Industrial Training Programs Do Mazzella and ITI Offer?

– [Hengst] So can you tell us a little bit about what are some of the industrial training programs that Mazzella offers and ITI offers?

– [Farley] I’ll start there then I’ll pass it to you, Amanda.

– [Long] Sounds great.

– [Farley] Because with the collaboration with ITI on the Mazzella side of the house, we offer basic rigging. We offer signal person, we offer overhead crane operations, as well as fall protection. If it goes beyond that, if it exceeds Mazzella capabilities, our partnership with ITI allows us to hand off to them for more, I guess you could say more elaborate training and so forth. And Amanda, I’ll let you speak in that regard.

– [Long] Yeah, so we really span the lifting discipline across many different training delivery methods and modalities and skill levels. So everything from the basic rigging that powers Mazzella’s training arm to lift director and rigging engineering programs and everything in between.

We break our products down, our education products down into three discipline categories. And that’s going to be rigging, mobile and overhead cranes, and then lift planning and management. And whether it’s VR crane simulation or instructor led training or online learning and however they’re consuming that content it really is bucketed into those three main categories. And it really, we like to make sure that when possible the students are being educated in the way that they’re consuming information best and making sure that we’ve got the right content supporting it.

So as you can imagine, our Master Rigger course, which is a pretty rigorous 50% hands-on 50% classroom, learn it, do it, your theory in the classroom, applying it in the shop or in the field. Those hands-on concepts are best cemented in an instructor-led training delivery method. Whereas we have some of the classroom theory portions available throughout different online content. So it, you know, it really spans from a very basic, you want to be a helper, you want to get exposure all the way up to lift directors and rigging engineers and everybody in between.

And we really focus like so much of how we began 40 plus years ago in the Mazzella Companies and the founding family, the Parnells of ITI have known each other for a very long time and had this partnership and relationship and we’re always evolving with the industry so that we can continue to educate through all the different delivery methods.

What Skills and Certifications Are Crucial for Career Advancement?

– [Hengst] So what are some key skills? And Amanda, this is more for you since ITI offers certifications. So what are some key skills and certifications that are crucial for career advancement in the lifting industry? And then how do your training programs help people acquire these skills?

– [Long] That’s a great question, Ben. And what’s interesting is in the training industry, ITI along with other organizations that provide similar training have an area of training or a category of training that’s really tailored to be successful on the nationally accredited certification exams. So they’re probably, coin term, a prep course, you know, much like an SAT prep course.

A lot of those topics are not something that’s everyday conversation in the field for your crane operators. So they’re not saying, hey buddy, before we go hoist personnel, be sure you tell me what the OSHA regulation is to hoist personnel. So we’re really sure that we’re educating to make sure that they’re successful on the domains that the nationally accredited body puts out there. That’s very similar to other things that you will find in the training industry. Now when you look at the training programs, I really like to break it up into prep courses and skills building. So things even, you know, what Mazzella’s doing on basic rigging is they’re educating them on how to go out and do that level of rigging more knowledgeably, safer, more effectively.

Then you come over to the ITI side and do intermediate rigger and master rigger. I’m just using rigging kind of as an example. There’s opportunities throughout that skills building process where you can be successful on the CCO certifications. So, you know, when available we would build out a learning progression that says, hey guys, once you’ve completed this intermediate rigger, you’re a great candidate based on the experience that you have to be able to go out and obtain certification. So we have the skills building side where we really focus on the craft skills necessary. And then we have the certification, the prep course side. As a byproduct on the prep course side, they’re always going to walk away with more skills. The domains cover a broad range of topics within the industry. So they’re always walking away more educated. But the purpose of those is that we can help them be successful on the certification exams.

Probably the last piece of your question that’s important is that not all certifications are required throughout our industry. So when we look at how OSHA designates and classifies the workforce, it’s in general industry and then in construction. And in construction, when you’re doing construction activities or you’re falling under the construction standard, that is when crane operators must be certified by an ANSI accredited third party certification body. Outside of that, it’s not required.

And so that’s where we do a lot of consulting. The Mazzella team, the ITI team, we do a lot of consulting of understanding what type of environment are you working in, what type of activities are you doing, who are you working for? Like a lot of our contracting workforce, if they’re going to go into an organization, especially here in the Gulf, I’m in Houston. A lot of our owner companies require certification to come on site regardless of activity. So we want to help make sure that they’re prepared to go out and perform work and don’t get stopped because of a lack of a training or lack of a credential.

What Are the OSHA Requirements for Lifting and Rigging Training?

– [Hengst] So speaking of those requirements, what are some of the OSHA requirements for training? I’m sure that a lot of people out there don’t know that there are OSHA requirements for lifting and rigging training.

– [Long] Yes, and training is a really great way to look at it because, you know, certification is a bit of a buzzword, right? And the only time we really want to look at required certification because organizations will have their own policies and will need to help, you know, contractors or those employees and managers adhere to those. But when we look at training, OSHA and ASME are going to require that all personnel performing lifting and rigging activities are trained and evaluated before they’re turned loose to go do that activity.

So we spend a lot of time educating our customers that we need to make sure that they have the training and it doesn’t always have to be formal, It doesn’t always have to be ITI training or Mazzella training. It can be on the job training. And we always will help them make sure that they’re documenting it in a way that mitigates a risk for the employee and the employer and that they’ve got some sort of education, formal or informal on the activities that they’re being tasked to do by that employer and that before they’re turned loose to go do whatever that activity is, operating a crane, rigging a certain complex load, however big or small, or simple or complex, that they are evaluated against those activities. And that they have the knowledge, training, experience, credentialing, whatever it is that says, “yes this person should go do that.” That way our managers can go to sleep at night and our people can go home at the end of the day.

– [Farley] Right, that’s a good thing you said it that way too Amanda, because you are right certification is a buzzword out in the industry, but the main topic in which you said is training. They do need to be trained, whether formal whether informal, but before you let loose on a crane or rigging and so forth, you should have some type of proper training, whether it’s through Mazzella, ITI, or hands-on.

The Importance of Properly Documenting Training

– [Hengst] The key thing that you said there was documented, like you need to document that someone is competent, qualified to handle the equipment.

– [Farley] Yes.

– [Long] Yeah, and that’s where we run into, you know, processes involved, organizations involved. But you still find a lot of organizations that have paper in the break room and it gets filed into a file and it doesn’t make it back to the individual personnel record. And heaven forbid, should you need it, it really needs to carry that trail of why is the organization saying that Ben can go do this thing, you know? And so it’s really important when we look at how we serve customers, both Mazzella and ITI take a risk mitigation standpoint. How can we mitigate the risk for the persons doing the activity and the employer and provide them the proper tools, the proper support, the proper education so that they can go do that?

– [Farley] And that’s one of the difference makers I was talking about earlier. Because just like Amanda is saying, those are the things that I talk about when I am on site, when I am with the client, of documentation beats conversation all the time. Let’s get a record in place because I am in places where that’s not happening. But now they’re making those type of changes and that’s the thing that I like to see or the difference making. So I appreciate what you’re saying on that as well Amanda.

How Does Mazzella’s Training Differ From ITI’s Training?

– [Hengst] So what does Mazzella training look like and what does an ITI training look like?

– [Farley] They are the same. Because ITI trained us, no, let me stop. Not exactly the same, but we do use the ITI curriculum.

ITI has put together a robust package that I think is phenomenal, that has the OSHA compliance inside of it so that the client, when they go through it, they know, they’re prepared for, if OSHA does have to come out, they have the certifications or the attendance certificates, letting them know that their employee has been trained. And when it comes to the handoff, it’s a seamless handoff to ITI, it’s a constant collaboration because even once it’s given to ITI, they keep us in the loop. They let the account manager know what’s going on, and they’re able to babysit it all the way into completion.

– [Long] We represent ourselves as, and we have a very exciting and wonderful partnership with Mazzella, but we really are the training arm. And whether we’re powering the internal training, like JT said, through the curriculum, or those customers are coming to us for a higher level or a more hands-on approach or the certification, it is a seamless experience.

So our technical director, Jasen Doyle came out and did a very extensive train the trainer to make sure that those customers that we serve within the industry don’t see the difference in the delivery of, as we progress from basic, and I’m just using rigging as an example, but basic rigging to intermediate to master or from their overhead crane operator to inspector to technician. So there’s a lot of progression that happens, but it’s a seamless experience for the student.

How Can Industrial Training Be Leveraged for Career Growth?

– [Hengst] So how can you leverage industrial training opportunities for your career growth?

– [Long] Oh, that’s a great question. So, you know, there’s a lot of really great support organizations out there for building craftsman’s resumes. Coming to training courses, whether they be open enrollment or through a previous employer. It’s really important to put on there that formal training piece that they’ve received. Because they might, whether that qualification transfers from company A to company B is not what company B is after they want to know that they’ve had that formal education piece they’ve had the exposure. So being able to put those on there at whatever level it is, you know, again, from helper all the way up to, you know, the lift director, it’s really powerful to be able to put some of those courses on their resume. With certificates of completion and attendance and even online stuff. You know, “I have taken the initiative to go out and educate myself or this organization I previously worked for, educated me in this subject matter.” It’s a very powerful tool when they’re going out to look and advance their career.

– [Farley] Yes, and this industry is going nowhere, Ben. I mean the more you know, the more you grow, right? So the sky is really the limit for the lifelong learner and the more education they get, the higher they can go in this industry. So 100% on board with what you’re saying about that Amanda, the more training you get, the higher you can go.

– [Hengst] Yeah, and I think that employers look for that quality. I know at Mazzella we specifically hire to that quality. Are you a lifelong learner? Are you someone who wants to continually grow as an employee, as a person?

How Can You Get Involved in Industrial Training Programs?

So how can different companies get involved in some of these different training programs? What’s the process?

– [Long] So ITI has training centers, but through the Mazzella partnership we actually have two of our six training centers are at Mazzella facilities.

So at any of our training centers, any Mazzella or ITI customer or anybody off the street, just really looking to understand the way that we go about educating people can get into open enrollment courses. So that’s where we can serve the organization that doesn’t have 12 people to train at one time or can’t afford to take six guys out of the field at one time. We can go and put, you know, onezie twosies into a training center course at any one of the six locations. And the two Mazzella ones being the Florida and the Cleveland facility. We have a high concentration of customers around there. So they find it really easy and you know, as we have scheduled courses all throughout the year.

So they can put anybody into open enrollment courses or what can be more cost effective as you get to the higher number of people, eight, you know, 10, 12, 6 people just kind of depending on the course. We can come out to the client locations and I can let, you know, JT speak to the volume of coming to the customer organizations versus utilizing training centers. But most of our instructors, all of our instructors around the US and Canada are at client locations week over week.

– [Farley] And we’re definitely very flexible. Website, phone call, account manager, even word of mouth. You can get in touch with us if training is necessary, we can come to you or you can come to one of our facilities. I was just out at a company, they heard about me from another company. Word of mouth, no problem I’m there next week, let’s get your basic rigging training done.

– [Hengst] Yep, and JT I know you’re all over the country all the time, right?

– [Farley] Yes, they keep me hopping definitely .

– [Long] Even if, you know, somebody listening to the podcast is a long time Mazzella customer contacting your Mazzella account manager. And the course is, you know, an intermediate rigger, a master rigger, lift director. That comes directly to ITI for the delivery of it, but managed by your familiar account manager. So it’s a really cool partnership for the customer because it’s very seamless for them.

How Can You Advocate for Additional Training in Your Company?

– [Hengst] So I assume that normally the people that are coming to you guys for these trainings are going to be companies looking for compliance. But let’s say you’re an individual in a company, how could they advocate for themselves to push a company to give them additional training and help them gain new competencies?

– [Farley] I would say well first of all, knowing your rights, right? As an employee and the responsibilities of the employer, right? That per OSHA, the employer is responsible for training their employees and making sure it’s a safe work environment. So in that aspect, I would say it would be more of asking, right? Going to your supervisor and asking for the type of training you would like or the type of training that’s necessary is one way of doing it.

When I am out at a client’s office, I do get that question a lot Ben. And I talk with them about that as well. Now that you see your company is investing in your training with me being here, you now can go to them for more. We talk about seat time and things like that in hours. Just because you’ve gone through overhead crane operations training with me, if you don’t still feel comfortable or confident and competent, go with your supervisor, they know that I’ve already directed you to do that. And you can get more training that way.

– [Long] And encouraging the individual to really take to some familiar organizations that they have. To the internet to just really look at what are the options when it comes to training a higher skill in their, you know, career progression. So if they’re starting, especially like in the manufacturing environment, there’s a lot of opportunity for cross pollinating skills, you know, to be able to go, what sort of skill do I need to go from the beam mill to the melt shop just using, you know, some steel industry locations within one plant facility. There’s a lot of opportunity to look at what skill do I need to advance or go somewhere else with maybe a different pay rate, or to move up within an organization.

Just looking at some of the education resources that are available to individuals. I would encourage them to seek it out. And there’s like, kind of going back to my first answer about how I got here is my dad. My dad started 50 something years ago in the union here, which is a great way to get experience and be educated at the Local here out of the Houston area. From helper to rigger to crane operator, to now he’s been the Lifting Technical Authority for all of BP Americas and is now a lifting authority for a Italian petroleum company, right?

So it’s just that if they have the desire to grow within their discipline, there are so many tools and resources out there. To get that formal education piece is so small. What we do is so small in what they need to learn. And then they go in the field and apply the right skills, then they can just keep growing.

What Advice Is There for Newcomers to the Lifting Industry?

– [Hengst] So what advice would you give someone who’s new to the lifting industry, who’s looking to advance in their career? Where should they start?

– [Farley] Me personally, if, well ’cause I’m new to it. And I know you’re chomping at the bit, Amanda, I’m going to give it back to you in one second but I look at ordinal direction learning, you know, I look at, at, at north, south, east and west, right? from Katie to Kayla to Tom and Tony, to Amanda and Jasen. And I just became a whirlwind in that compass of learning from those people and everyone within there.

So apprising yourself to the information, exposing yourself, making new friends and asking questions. And it’s helped building not only my character, but helped building my knowledge with basic rigging. Then along with, like I was saying with Jasen, and Amanda talked about him earlier, who did our basic rigging training class. Amanda being, you know, she’s getting back to me within 24 hours, right? You know, she’s a very busy woman, VP of Sales, but she has no problem shooting an email and giving me answers. Tony, you know, our CEO and so forth, open door policy. So that would be my advice. You know, don’t be a island. Make yourself available to people and ask questions.

– [Long] What I would encourage somebody if they said, “what’s the right way to really make sure that I create the foundation that I need to grow the way I want to grow and achieve the amount of success that I’m going for?” It would be to really be willing to dig in at the foundational level of crane and rigging.

So, you know, if it’s a 45-year-old man who’s looking to change careers, because there is so much opportunity to support yourself, support extended family within the lifting industry to really be willing to learn that entry level or foundation level knowledge. So not necessarily saying you need to all start out as helpers, but to really take on that mindset of learning from the retiring workforce and saying, why do you do that? Asking questions. “Why is that a best practice? Where did that come from? What could happen if I don’t?” And really understanding that foundational knowledge, get knowledge, get that formal training knowledge that foundation laid, start in a position that’s going to grow your knowledge organically as you expose yourself to the people JT’s talking about.

So just asking questions to the people around you. And it’s very different, right? Like you’ve got a heavy lift company, maybe a crane rental company. You’re on the dock, or you are in a manufacturing setting or in a refinery. There’s so many different environments that are going to offer people to you that have different levels of expertise when it comes to lifting. So I would encourage people to ask a lot of why’s. “Why are we doing this? How can I apply it? How can I grow?” And then they might see the skillset that they want to really hone in on. And maybe it’s crane operation, right? That’s a very beautiful art that there’s a lot of area for advancement in. You know, you can go to run, you know, a very critical piece in the manufacturing process, like in a melt shop, or you could go run a heavy lift crane and, you know, make some of the most amazing lifts that people see in the world. So there’s just so much room for opportunity. But I would encourage an individual to say, “why are we doing this? How can I learn more?” And gather from people and from the training industry on those subjects.

– [Farley] And even the mentor mentee goes a long way as well. Bob Gubanich, Matt Young, took me under their wing And really shared a lot with me and showed a lot to me. So I think that’s another way, advice I would give, you know. Look for someone to mentor you. We all should be growing and should always be looking up to someone. So I would go that route as well.

– [Hengst] And I’m going to give my own piece of advice. So I’ve been in this industry for a few years now. And… Read the standards. They’re boring, no one likes reading them.

– [Farley] Right.

– [Hengst] Like nobody does. But if you know the rules, it doesn’t matter if you’re in the sales side of the business, if you’re working in the office, if you’re in the field, if you know the rules, you’re going to feel comfortable talking about them and talking about what you can and cannot do. And there’s so much information in those standards if you pull out a highlighter and you go through them and you read them whenever you need to look something up.

– [Farley] Sure.

– [Hengst] You’re going to learn a lot.

– [Long] I just thought of something else to add there Ben, so I guess a little bit of my entry into the training space was I started helping my dad at his crane and rigging training company. And that evolved where I am today. And I was sitting in on a lot of classes and at the time he had to go out to an incident and there was a class scheduled the next day. And so he said, “ready or not?”

And I’m like, “well ‘or not’ is the answer, but okay.” And the piece of advice he gave me in that conversation has stuck with me and has allowed for me to advance my career to where I am today, to be able to be a industry resource is, know what you don’t know.

I spent the first two years of my training career and I spent about seven directly training almost every day of the year. But I spent the first two years of that creating a parking lot of questions that I did not know the answer to. So whether I was calling on an industry resource or looking through regulations and standards on a break to give them the answer, I was able to educate myself.

So you made me think of it Ben, when you said reading the regulations and standards, our industry experts wrote those for a reason. And there are so many answers in there that if you just take some curiosity, make sure you’re curious about the answer and the why, dig in, flag it, highlight it, read around it. You know, “what is this there for?” That’s how I figured out the answers to all the stuff I didn’t know.

And as you know, as I’ve gone, I still know what I don’t know. It’s, you know, for a new person out there trying to prove skills within a job, I can’t encourage that enough to raise your hand and say, “I don’t know how to do this right. I don’t know why.” And there’s going to be people there to help you or your employer or whatever it is. Just know what you don’t know. And there’s educational resources out there.

Why Should Lifting and Rigging Training Be Taken Seriously?

I would just encourage anybody, whether it’s a manager, individual, somebody who’s a CEO of a organization that has lifting in it to really embrace the activity for the art that it is, it is not as simple as pushing buttons on a pendant control. It is not as simple as reading a tag and putting a sling on a load. It takes expertise, it takes art, it takes critical thinking, and it’s so important to educate the individual or your employees so that we can keep people safe.

If you look at across the globe of the Fortune 100 or 500 companies that have lifting and rigging in their activities, it is always at the highest risk category. So there’s so many things that can happen and we have mitigated against so many of those over the years, but it still happens today. So the more we can educate ourselves, the more passionate people we can get in the industry, the better everybody’s going to be.

How Can You Learn More About Industrial Training?

– [Hengst] Thanks JT. Thanks Amanda, for joining. So Amanda, how can people get ahold of you?

– [Long] iti.com is a great place. Myself specifically, amanda@iti.com. I’m happy to talk to anybody. We have a great team, great people, great partners, like Mazzella. Wonderful facilities and training centers across the board. But you know, we really want to make sure that we’re the right fit for individuals and organizations as we engage with them. So we’d just love to talk to you, see where you’re at, and see how we might be able to help.

– [Hengst] So you can get ahold of myself, JT, or any of Mazzella’s experts at mazzellacompanies.com. Don’t forget to pop into our learning center. We have a ton of training videos there. We have articles, we have articles explaining the ASME standards. You can listen to Safety Factor wherever you listen to your podcasts, or you can watch it on the Lifting Rigging channel on YouTube. Thanks for listening. Stay safe out there.