Externship/Internship Training Objectives:
Maintaining standards is paramount important at AC/C TECH because it will assure that our students (graduates) can do the work expected by the employer. Students are required to document 15 hours of OJT (On-Job-Training) assignments. The OJT assignments must align with the course lessons, and the OJT documentation must be submitted to AC/C TECH within 6-months after the online training ends. For example, while a student learns about electric furnace maintenance, he/she could assist in repairing or cleaning a furnace. While a student learns about interior building maintenance, he/she could assist in prepping a unit for leasing. This experience is truly meaningful because it represents 33% of the training/learning. Also, because it can identify how well students are completing job assignments.
Primary Objectives:
As primary objectives, students may be evaluated on completing Planned Maintenance, Breakdown Maintenance, Job Task Standards, Restoring Vacated Apartment Units, and Uniform Physical Inspections.
Planned Maintenance is routine work that needs to be done in order to preserve the life of equipment and/or property. A well-established planned maintenance program will allow you to control the workload, the budget, and personnel. Plus, it will help minimize emergency work that results in costly repairs, and it will reduce work-orders stemming from breakdown maintenance. Planned Maintenance should be top priority and scored the highest; and therefore, students must clearly demonstrate a true ability to do planned maintenance assignments successfully and without supervision.
Breakdown Maintenance require students to approach the job systematically and follow diagnostic and repair procedures. This will reduce misdiagnosing and replacing parts until the equipment works. This unnecessary expense affects the property’s net operating income. As the minimum passing standard, students must demonstrate an ability to follow diagnostic and repair procedures.
Job Task Standards measures a worker’s performance based on the amount of time and quality of work produced. As one example, the estimated time to diagnose and repair a defective blower motor inside an electric furnace is 40 minutes. Anyone exceeding that time may require additional training, better tools, and/or precise supervision. As the minimum passing standard, students must complete 70% of all OJT assignments within the allocated time.
Restoring Vacated Apartment Units to a market ready condition involves cleaning and repairing ceilings, walls, floors, stairs, doors, cabinets, trim, and baseboards. It also involves cleaning, repairing, and inspecting appliances, HVAC equipment, plumbing fixtures, and the electrical system for safety and functionality. As the minimum passing standard, students must demonstrate an ability to restore vacated apartment units to a market ready condition without supervision.
Uniform Physical Inspections is fifth priority. Emphasis is placed on helping apartment communities achieve a 90-100% REAC score. This objective can be achieved by getting everyone involved, which should be a company-wide concern, not just a maintenance concern. Our strategy includes inspections by Maintenance Personnel, Property Manager, Risk Facility Service Manager, and Residents. This team approach will have the greatest impact towards helping communities achieve the highest score possible. In fact, we recommend that inspections be conducted quarterly.
Secondary Objectives:
As secondary objectives, students may be evaluated on completing workorders, technical skills, special projects, safety skills, customer relation skills, and documentation skills:
- Work Orders - Students may be evaluated on how effectively they completed assignments, e.g.: did the student understand and respond to the work order correctly? Did the student demonstrate good diagnostic and repair techniques? Did the student adjust the equipment for optimum efficiency after making the repair? Was the work completed in a timely manner?
- Technical Skills - Students may be evaluated on following diagnostic and repair procedures, how much time was needed to correctly make the repair, understanding the equipment's sequence of operation, applying a systematic approach towards isolating electro-mechanical problems, use of reference materials, and proving his/her diagnosis.
- Special Projects - Students may be evaluated on how well they completed a special project.
- Safety Skills - Students may be evaluated on safety procedures such as use of tools and testing devices, maintaining a clean and safe environment, or protecting the resident and/or property. A student will be stopped and receive a zero score if he/she makes a Gross Safety Violation. A Gross Safety Violation is anything that the student does or fails to do that significantly jeopardizes his/her safety or the resident’s safety.
- Customer Relation Skills - Students may be evaluated on professionalism. For example, how an introduction was made? Did the student interact with the resident? Was customer satisfaction achieved at the end of the service call
- Documentation Skills - Students may be evaluated on how thorough, accurate, and legible work- orders are completed. Specifically, the work-order must include what was observed, diagnosed, repaired, and reflect what the resident was told?
These activities/objectives are meaningful to students insofar as job placement and retention. Also, they are meaningful to alumni insofar as employment advancements. However, it’s worth mentioning that OJT represents 25% of the training/learning experience, and therefore, it represents a meaningful balance among the evaluation process.
The OJT requirements and objectives are communicated to students at the beginning of each course/program; and reinforced in each course syllabus. Also, the OJT requirements and objectives are communicated to maintenance supervisors verbally by AC/C TECH staff, and via the subscriber license agreement.
Please reference Forms and Documents to obtain a copy of the OJT Documentation Form and Grading Policy.