ON-THE-JOB TRAINING METHODS IN RELATION TO STUDENT EDUCATION 1

On-the-Job Training Methods in Relation to Student Education

Charlotte R. Garrand

Flowery Branch High School

Honors Work-Based Learning

Harmon Tison

March 6, 2023
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Abstract

My research is based on past research related to on-the-job training and uses this research

to teach engineering students how to use equipment related to their high school program of

choice. On-the-job training is a process that has been in use for centuries but has only been

brought into modern workplaces in recent years. However, on-the-job training has been found to

be the most effective way to train in a way that will allow trainees to retain what they have

learned. I took this research, as well as personal experience and knowledge, to create a website

compiling all equipment used in my high school’s engineering lab. I formatted it to be concise

and easily accessible so students can ease into using equipment they have never used before.

While this website does compile all information I intended to include, it is not in the original

format I intended and has not been tested on any students. I have been limited by both time to

conduct research and updates and the constant changes that take place in the engineering lab that

limit more permanent formats of the website like 3d scans. The intent for this website is that it

will grow and change with the engineering program and will be worked on and used by future

students.
ON-THE-JOB TRAINING METHODS IN RELATION TO STUDENT EDUCATION 3

Introduction

For my year-long senior capstone project, I plan on creating a website that consists of all

the equipment we have in the engineering lab and explains how to use and troubleshoot each

machine. I want to know if changing the way that we currently teach students to use lab

equipment will improve if they have resources to look back at and more hands-on learning.

The way that we currently teach students is by showing them how to use the equipment

once without letting them test it themselves. As Ferenstein, a mental health researcher, stated, he

believes that current training “radically underestimated how long it takes the average person to

transition into a high-skill career” (Ferenstein). He goes on to state how the way that training is

currently set up is made for those with easy lives who have no other responsibilities besides their

job. Mota, an expert on on-the-job training, researched how on-the-job training came to be. The

first studied examples of OTJ are apprenticeship programs. This form of training has been

around for hundreds of years, with apprentices working under an expert in their field, learning

while doing the job they are training for. This mirrors current OTJ with new employees working

under more experienced employees as they do their job. However, apprenticeships were created

for young people, often men, who were not married and didn’t have children. They were also

often better off financially, making training far easier. This is mirrored in current on-the-job

training, where participants are often expected to be able to contribute full-time hours, learn new

skills every day, and work off of a starting pay. This causes new employees to face burnout or to

have to leave their job altogether. With this current model, on-the-job training is inefficient and

often costs companies money.

Although we can see that current training programs are ineffective, there aren’t any better

programs that have been sufficiently tested or proven. Therefore, I want to use my training
ON-THE-JOB TRAINING METHODS IN RELATION TO STUDENT EDUCATION 4

experience and the person that I will recruit as my replacement, as a way to test new training

programs and improve the office experience at my job. I believe that the best way to structure a

training program is based on hours worked rather than structured day by day or week by week.

Current employees often have other responsibilities or financial burdens and cannot afford to

work a normal forty hours week working nine to five, Monday through Friday. Many employees

either work fewer days with more hours or cannot work forty hours a week and therefore base

their training off of someone who can cause them to lose training time and therefore knowledge.

In my training experience, I was only working about two hours a week. Since my job closed at

4:30 and I couldn’t get out of school until 3:30, I was only able to work one hour a day, and most

days during the week I had other activities after school. Since the program I was trained in was

designed for me to learn something new or work on something day by day, I wasn’t able to learn

most job skills while I was in training because rather than being able to work eight hours and

learn from the experiences of a functioning office, I worked on hours right before the office

closed. This newer form of training will help individualize training programs and allow for new

employees to balance work and life.

ON-THE-JOB TRAINING METHODS IN RELATION TO STUDENT EDUCATION 5

Method

Purpose

The purpose of my capstone for work-based learning is to learn how to use different equipment

within the engineering lab with the intent of documenting how and why we use the equipment

for future use by other students and me. Almost all of the work that I have done in my job has

required me to learn how to use new equipment and although I was able to pick up on how to

work the equipment pretty quickly, tangible guides and instructions would have made learning

much easier and faster.

My Experience

My method of learning how to use this equipment in order to document it was through

hands-on experience. I had Mr. Tison, as well as fellow students, teach me how to use different

equipment in the lab, and then through trial and error and asking questions, I learned how they

worked and how to troubleshoot. I was also able to solidify how to use this equipment because

all the projects that I did required such high quantities of whatever I was making that I had to use

the machines over and over again.

Others’ Experiences

However, most people using our lab equipment will not be using it in such high quantities

meaning they may forget how it works or not know in the first place. Students also participate in

the engineering program for three to four years but the equipment we use is often something that

can only be accessed while at the school or other engineering facilities. This means they may go

weeks or months without using the equipment during breaks. I know that for me, it was always

helpful to jog my memory but this often required me to bother Mr. Tison or Mr. Freddy or to try

to find some sort of guide online that would tell me exactly what I needed.
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Design

What I would have preferred is a straightforward guide specifically designed for our

engineering lab that would allow me to get info meant for what I am doing. I will create this

guide by making a website. This website will have a separate tab for each piece of equipment we

have in the lab. It will detail everything from how to turn it on to how to troubleshoot different

problems. My hope for this website is that Mr. Tison and Mr. Freddy will be able to publish this

website on their canvas pages so students can access it as they learn about different equipment in

the engineering lab. They will be able to use it as they first begin using the equipment and

throughout each year as they refresh their memory.

Reasoning

This project is important because up to this point, students have only been able to learn

how to use the lab equipment by asking a teacher or a fellow student. Although there is nothing

wrong with asking for help, sometimes students put off learning new equipment because they

don’t want to bother anyone, not to mention sometimes students who know more about the labs

than their peers can have trouble getting work done because they are helping everyone. I have

struggled with this because I have been the only student in my grade that knew how to use a few

pieces of equipment, so whenever we would do projects that required the use of that equipment, I

would have to spend more time helping my peers that working on my own project. This project

will help other students like me as well as any students that haven’t gotten the hang of the

engineering lab yet.

ON-THE-JOB TRAINING METHODS IN RELATION TO STUDENT EDUCATION 7

Results

In my observations, I found that most students in our engineering program do not

understand how most of our lab equipment works. Throughout my four years in our engineering

program, I have had to spend much of my time that I could have been spending on my own

projects helping fellow students with their projects because they don’t understand how to use any

necessary equipment. I have also observed many of my peers not understanding basic protective

equipment such as safety glasses. However, I wasn’t sure if this problem was simply a fluke in

my year. I quickly learned from just the semester that I have spent as an engineering teaching

assistant that this problem is apparent in all grades currently in the engineering program.

However, I don’t believe that this problem is because of poor teaching or negligence by

engineering teachers. Rather, from my research, I have found that in most cases, training and

teaching fail because teachers greatly underestimate how long it takes to learn.

This means that I have to create a new way of teaching students about our engineering

lab. From my experience, I realized that the thing I struggle with most when trying to learn new

equipment is remembering everything that’s going on. Most of our equipment has a lot of steps

just to get it turned on and each type of digital machinery requires an understanding of a different

computer software. A lot of the equipment also requires small maintenance by students to keep it

running. My solution for this is to build a website. This website will house information about

each piece of equipment in our lab and Mr. Tison and Mr. Freddy will have access to it so they

can keep it on their class Canvas pages so students have access whenever they need it. The

website has a page for each piece of equipment with a picture of the equipment. I then has

sections about turning it on, using software if there is any, running it, turning it off, and

troubleshooting and maintenance.

ON-THE-JOB TRAINING METHODS IN RELATION TO STUDENT EDUCATION 8

Evaluation

The strengths of my project are that it is easy to edit and can be used within all areas of

the engineering program. My project will be easy to edit and I will give access to Mr. Freddy and

Mr. Tison. I will create my website on Weebly, which allows for quick access and easy editing. I

want my website to be something that can be improved after I graduate and be updated as we get

more equipment. I want it to grow with our school and engineering program. My website could

even become a capstone project for another student in the future where they add the new

equipment and information they know. They will also be able to learn from the shortcomings of

my website so they will better understand what it needs. My website is also something that will

help improve the engineering program. It can be used after I leave to help other students become

familiar with the lab and equipment. It will help change the way that students learn within the

engineering program and hopefully help more students truly understand engineering and the

machinery that goes with it.

The limitations of my capstone included time and resources. Since I quit my old job

halfway through the year, I had to completely restart my project. I had completely planned and

started my old project when I changed jobs. I then had to completely change projects and

mentors while still trying to hold on to my new ideas. I didn’t want to have to completely restart

my research or get a whole new project approved. I also felt more limited in what I could do

because I was already well past the deadline for any budget or ethics approval. This meant that I

took a lot of time trying to plan what I was going to do and figure out something that was both

quick and related to my previous research. Although I was able to come up with something that

met both of these standards, I still feel like I don’t have enough time. The amount of time that it

took me to come up with my new idea means that I fell behind on a lot of assignments because I
ON-THE-JOB TRAINING METHODS IN RELATION TO STUDENT EDUCATION 9

didn’t have the information to complete them. I feel that my biggest limitation won’t be ideas or

resources but rather time for execution. I think I will have a project that fulfills what I want it to

but that it won’t be as great as I want it to be. I am currently planning on doing a 3d tour of the

lab that has my instructions on it but I worry that 3d scanning the entire lab won’t get done and I

will simply have to make a website with photos. 3d scanning requires me to clean the lab and get

a scan that is steady and has no interference. However, I think no matter what I will be able to

create a website and help teach future engineering classes.

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Conclusion

My results relate to STEAM and my Work Based Learning job. My job working as an

engineering lab intern means that anything I do related to my job will be engineering related.

Since my project is based entirely around the STEAM engineering program and the engineering

equipment that we use within STEAM, my entire project is STEAM related. The research that I

have done is meant to improve the current STEAM program. Although it is not STEAM related

by itself because of its base in psychology, I am using it to improve the STEAM program. By

using the research that has been done in on-the-job training and teaching, I was able to learn how

to better teach engineering.

I believe that my project will continue to be relevant to STEAM because of its ability to

grow and change as the program continues. I hope that my website will be taken on by either

another student or one of the engineering teachers and will be updated as the engineering lab

changes. I made it so that pages could simply be deleted, added to, or added as equipment and

knowledge changed in the lab. I hope that next year and in the years to come, other students will

work as engineering lab interns and will use my website as the basis for their capstone projects. I

also hope that the website will be improved and that students who use it to learn about equipment

in the lab will use the experience and problems that they had with it to make it better. Ultimately,

the project is meant to grow with the STEAM engineering program and continue to improve it.
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