The winter months are all about preparing for the upcoming season. This includes purchasing and pricing strategies, marketing planning, and learning about new products. In addition, now is the time to focus on training your team; whether it’s refreshing your team on material/systems they already know or learning new products or product updates, these months before the season really gets underway are crucial to making sure your team is ready.
There are many resources available from manufacturers, industry associations, and Central to make sure you get ahead of the curve. We checked in with Dave Shane, Central’s Commercial Sales Manager , for a list of six training resources that are available at low or no cost:
1. Hunter University
Hunter Industries has done an incredible job with the number of courses on irrigation and lighting that are available online through Hunter University. They offer more than 100 courses and training can be customized from the Technician Program through the Expert Program.
Available to anyone with a computer, Hunter offers online learning with courses, videos/streaming content, tutorials and resources, testing, and user Q&A. Hunter offers a variety of training opportunities that can be completed any time of day at your own pace, from installation and troubleshooting to water conservation, operational efficiencies and/or selling tools.
2. Rain Bird Training Services
Rain Bird offers a variety of training opportunities from live streaming, online courses, factory training, and customized/private training. Training Services with Rain Bird cover a variety of options including products training, general industry training, and in-depth technical training—including hands-on and interactive training.
With more than six training formats available, you’ll be able to find the right training option for your team. Rain Bird offers both residential and commercial training courses—and right now both Factory Training and Academy Boot Camps are available online. Rain Bird’s training is available at a low-cost rate.
3. BaselineWeb Training
BaselineWeb Training is available through YouTube at no cost. Baseline offers hundreds of videos with more than 30+ added in the past few months. Most videos are 10 minutes or less, allowing your team to easily digest the covered material. The Ask the Trainer series covers a variety of topics from Adding an AppManager Bookmark to Valve Decoder Messages. Every Tuesday, Baseline offers a Tech Talk Tuesday video series where experts discuss topics and answer real-world questions. Additionally, installation, setup and troubleshooting videos are available across their various products.
4. ArmadaTech
Armada Technologies also offers training videos through YouTube at no cost. Most of the training videos are under five minutes and cover a variety of topics such two-wire troubleshooting (with locators or the clamp-meter), testing and repairing systems, easily finding cable/wire, and product overviews.
5. Irrigation Association
The Irrigation Association has a variety of educational resources including self-study, teaching kits, workbooks, technical papers, online learning, webinars, continuing education, and certifications. Many of the classes are available for Spanish speakers as well. You can choose from courses that were developed and field tested by industry experts to teach practical skills and knowledge. Online courses, seminars, and webinars range from Auditing Drip Systems to Evapotranspiration and may offer CEU credits for a low fee.
6. Central Turf & Irrigation Supply
Central helps you train your team members to be even more productive with local classes, access to manufacturer online education classes, counter training events, and onsite support/training from subject matter experts. Whether you need help with technical troubleshooting, customized training for your team, or product demos and hands-on training, you can rely on Central. Visit our training web page to access these, and other, irrigation trainings. We stay at the leading edge of the industry and we’re ready to help you grow!
About Dave Shane
Dave has more than three decades of experience in the irrigation industry in both distribution and manufacturing roles. He specializes in commercial project solutions with an emphasis on controls to meet complex requirements. He is an excellent resource for any technical questions about irrigation systems and finding the right solutions for efficient irrigation systems.