Become An Instructor for Lead Safety Training!
Become An Instructor
Wisdom & Associates, Inc. is a company with a long history of providing education for the building industry primarily in Alaska; however, we’ve offered classes online nationwide for several years. Our programs include code compliance education, energy efficiency construction training, energy rater training, building science, green building techniques, and general building topics.
We have recently expanded our scope of training to include Lead Safety for Repairs, Renovations and Painting training. For this training we are seeking individuals with a strong background as inspectors, contractors or lead abatement specialists to join our team of instructors which will provide this government mandated training. We’ve included information about this opportunity, but for more specific information or an application, please contact our office.
Who We Are
Wisdom & Associates, Inc. was started over 19 years ago as a small inspection firm providing existing and code compliance inspections on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. Over the years our company has grown to a firm of professionals who are qualified as new construction and existing home inspectors as well as energy raters. Ten years ago, Wisdom & Associates, Inc. began offering building code education classes to local contractors with the purpose of helping them understand the code as it applied to their job sites. Wisdom & Associates’ unique perspective as code and existing home inspectors in the field brought a new and fresh viewpoint to the classroom. Not only did Wisdom & Associates’ instructors have the certifications to back up the information they taught, but they also brought field experience, both in the construction phase and later in the existing home inspection phase that allowed them to detail to students how one slight on the code affected a structure in the short and long term. Suddenly, continuing education for contractors in Alaska grew from theoretical and text book examples to field experience and real life examples.
It has been these unique field experiences and certifications of Wisdom & Associates’ instructors that have allowed our classes to move from building code topics to energy efficient construction, remodeling, indoor air quality, BPI Certification, and most recently Lead Safety Training.
Currently, our company offers in-person education primarily in the State of Alaska but also outside of Alaska on a request-only basis to large organizations and groups. Our online education is offered nationwide through our cutting-edge training which delivers online classes in such a way that there is little difference between the classroom lecture and the online delivery of a class. We feel as a company that expanding to nationwide training is the next step to bring our vision of education to the building industry, and we are looking for individuals with a background similar to ours to help us bring that vision to fruition.
Our success in the classroom has come from our field experience. Our instructors are working inspectors, energy raters and contractors who are able to bring field experience back into the classroom setting. Having an educator who can apply classroom text and theories into real life examples and situations allows students a more in-depth and thought provoking classroom experience.
Type of Training You’d Be Instructing
The training we are seeking instructors for is an eight hour EPA & HUD Lead Safety for Renovation, Repairs & Painting certification course. This course trains contractors to identify the presence of lead, how to notify and protect the homes’ occupants, how to set up and manage the work site, how to train crew members in lead safety, how to clean up the job site and what records are required to be maintained for EPA compliance.
This training is required for a vast majority of contractors working in the field today as the regulation takes effect April 22, 2010. It is required for anyone that performs repair, renovation or painting to a home build prior to 1978 or a home which has the presence of lead based paint and they will be required to carry this EPA certification and follow its guidelines. In general if a sub contractor, specialty trade, or handyman disturbs more than 6 square feet in a single room then this certification is required to avoid fines of $32,500 per offense. This training is required throughout the industry; millions of individuals and businesses are going to be required to come into compliance before performing work in older homes. The EPA certification course we are seeking instructors for are for the purposes of certification under Section 402 of TSCA for Lead Renovator Initial.
We do not expect that you, as an instructor, have all the latest lead training which is why part of the application process is to provide you with 16 hours of lead education. This allows you to have the most current lead safety information as well as more information beyond what you would be teaching in class.
The training you would provide if awarded a contract with Wisdom & Associates, Inc. consists of approximately 6 hours of classroom education. You would be provided with a Power Point presentation to accompany your discussion. The next 2 hours are hands-on instruction for the students. We send a tote of lead safety equipment to your training facility to oversee students practicing and demonstrating the proper techniques when working with lead.
Upon completion of the class, you simply pack the tote back up, send student photos, documentation, exams, and evaluations back to Wisdom & Associates, Inc. We handle the rest.
Program Support
If you were to become an instructor for Wisdom & Associates, we are offering to run all the support for the program; you would simply arrive at the venue ahead of students and teach the course. Wisdom & Associates, Inc. offers all the background logistical support of a program that has been perfected over the last ten years. Our company handles scheduling dates, advertising, confirmation of local venues, student registration and collection of fees, delivery of student materials, delivery of instructor and class materials, certification of students, authorization of certificates and general customer support.
Wisdom & Associates Inc. would expect for the instructor for a contracted class to arrive ahead of students, set up instruction materials we have sent to the class venue, and then lead the course with a Power Point presentation. The only part of this program that Wisdom & Associates Inc. requires the instructor to coordinate is finding enough helpers to maintain a student to instructor/helper ratio.
As a government mandated program there are some specific requirements, that if a class has an enrollment over 6 students the instructor will need to have additional helpers to oversee students during hands-on portion of the instruction. The largest classes will require three additional helpers for the two hour period that is the hands-on student instruction.
Compensation
The compensation is based on a sliding scale for the number of students who are registered. Instructors would be hired on a contract basis with requirements to show a minimum proof of insurance. Contract instructors would also be required to pay their helpers out of their compensation for the class. We have set this sliding scale level high enough that it exceeds the national average for instructor pay.
Scheduling
Your training schedule could be as light or as busy as you choose. As you are a contract instructor for our company, you would be scheduled for as many or as few dates as you’d like to make yourself available for. We do require a minimum student enrollment to cover costs to make a class ‘go’; however, you tell us how many classes you’d like to teach and we can develop a schedule in your area based on your request and availability.
Instructor Requirements
While Wisdom & Associates is looking for individuals with a background in a building industry trade, there are federally mandated requirements instructors for this program must meet. Wisdom & Associates Inc, once having approved your initial application to become a contract instructor, would then have you complete the second part of the application process; gaining the required training and demonstrating to us your classroom instruction skills. The EPA will have requirements that you must meet to become an instructor for this program. This second part of the application process covers these requirements to fully qualify you as an instructor.
The EPA requires that you:
1. Have experience, education or training in teaching workers or adults.
Wisdom & Associates offers their new instructors a one day ‘train the trainer’ course in which public speaking skills are polished, classroom direction and management skills are reviewed, and critique from experience instructors and peers are offered in honing your presentation and instructor skills. Based on an individuals performance in this class will determine whether you are offered a contract with Wisdom & Associates Inc. and assigned dates to teach the Lead Safety RRP training.
2. Successfully completed at least 16 hours of any EPA accredited lead-specific training.
As part of your application process, Wisdom & Associates, Inc. will provide a free Lead Safety Renovations, Repairs & Painting course, as well as a Dust Sampling Technician course so you can experience what teaching style we are looking for as well as how a class should run. This training is provided to you free of charge and considered part of the final application process.
3. Demonstrate experience, education, or training in lead or asbestos abatement, painting, carpentry, renovation, remodeling, occupational safety, and health or industrial hygiene.
As a home inspector, contractor, remodeler, or other building trade you will be able to demonstrate this minimum requirement of education and/or experience. In your initial application to our company be sure to include any and all past jobs and training that you have performed/completed to give us a clear idea of your background.
Interested?
Click Here To Download An Application
(fax it back to 907-283-9188)
or contact us:
training@akinspections.com
or
1-888-252-6045
