Maintainer Training delivered in Germany

Background

PDM delivered United Kingdom (UK) Heavy Equipment Transporter (HET) Maintainer Training to United States (US) Army personnel on behalf of Oshkosh Defense in support of the short-term redeployment of UK-based equipment to Baumholder, Germany.

The UK HET is an Oshkosh military specification tractor and trailer vehicle that is owned, operated and maintained as a service to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), via a Private Finance Initiative (PFI), by FTX Logistics Ltd, a Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) subsidiary.

The maintainer training required to support the equipment was delivered as two 10-day ‘back to back’ courses and included the same content delivered to FTX and Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) technicians who attend regular courses in Bulford, UK. The pace of delivery was adapted to suit the level of knowledge and skills already possessed by the US Army personnel.

Instructional facilities were provided by the user unit and included adequate workshop and manoeuvring space and a hastily adapted recreational area that was used as a classroom.

The courses were attended by a total of twenty maintenance specialists who will be responsible for supporting the UK HET fleet whilst it is deployed in Germany.

Outcome

The training was very well received and followed attendance by two US Army Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO) on a course in Bulford, which provided them with an understanding of what would be involved in delivering the courses in Baumholder.

PDM instructional staff have extensive experience of delivering maintainer training on a wide variety of equipment platforms, including the UK HET, and they used this to good effect to impart knowledge and information about unfamiliar automotive technology and diagnostic techniques to students with mixed abilities and relatively little ‘hands on’ experience of their own.

The course is designed with an appropriate balance of theory and practical lessons but it became clear that the trainees particularly enjoyed the workshop based activities and the opportunity to practice the skills they had learned or developed on it.

At the end of the course, the trainees evaluated all aspects of its delivery and gave it a satisfaction score of 98%. PDM will now continue to provide additional courses as a steady state requirement.