Tasman Training and DT Driver Training have teamed up to produce a new online forklift course for operators with English as a second language.
DT Driver Training director Darren Cottingham says as companies draw from an increasingly diverse and international workforce, language barriers can be common which create difficulties with training.
The course gives a better understanding of training material when gaining certificates and includes live action video, 3D and 2D animation, images, photos and voiceover.
“Most people who work on forklifts in New Zealand have a reasonable level of spoken English … but it can be difficult for those who grew up reading a different language, especially one which doesn’t use the same characters as English, to fully understand written training materials.
“We enable every question to be translated into one of 103 languages as well as having an audio recording in English,” Cottingham says.
Trainer Stan Chesswas, who has 30 years’ experience, says the course has other advantages too.
“If you take a typical forklift course, your operator has to be away the best part of a day and it’s difficult to schedule that time, and if they’re working nights, they’re tired.
“In a classroom course, the average attention span is 20 minutes which isn’t ideal when you’re trying to get safety concepts across.
“The course is divided into modules that take between three and 13 minutes. They can be repeated as often as required. It’s a better way of learning at your own pace with no peer pressure, a consistent delivery every time and the convenience of doing it any time of the day on your computer or smartphone,” Chesswas says.
*Go to drivingtests.co.nz/course/forklift for more information.
