City of Tucson Water Department Project Spotlight Q&A

When it comes to evaluating, designing and delivering customized training, no company is better qualified than EDSI. That’s a big statement, but we have deep knowledge and years of experience to back it up. If you’re a utility services company in need of updating your training to align with industry standards, check out our City of Tucson project spotlight Q&A interview below.

I sat down with Kim Glenn, Director of Innovative Learning Solutions (ILS) and Brian Lester, Director of Workforce Solutions to discuss more about their training project with the City of Tucson Water Maintenance and Customer Service Divisions.

Q2: What other experience does EDSI have working with other utility companies?

BL: EDSI has expansive industry experience providing a variety of training-related services to multiple utility companies across the U.S. Our water and wastewater industry work has been done primarily for American Water, the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly traded water and wastewater utility company, with more than 7,000 employees providing drinking water and managing wastewater for more than 15 million people in 46 states.

We also worked with DTE Energy in Michigan and Seattle City Light, a community-owned, not-for-profit utility that generates and delivers electricity across the Seattle, Washington region. Duquesne Light Company in Pennsylvania received our train-the-trainer (T3) training, which is one of our most requested offerings.

In addition to public utilities, EDSI has worked with more than 20 transit agencies across the country to develop training for their maintenance workforces.

Q4: What are important strategies or deliverables that you and the team have implemented to make this project so successful?

BL: The most important strategy to start with in a project like this is a benchmarking study, with the purpose of assessing the skills required to perform the job, conducting a job task analysis, and using the job task analysis to drive the rest of the study. The job task analysis is utilized to evaluate the relevancy of the current training curriculum and identify gaps. It will be used as the basis to survey the broader industry on current training and assessment practices. The job task analysis, which details the actual job tasks performed, becomes the common language that allows for an apples-to-apples comparison.

The job task analysis will also form the foundation of a rubric that the EDSI team will use to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the training curriculum, the quality of the classroom materials and manuals, delivery methods, use of technology, availability of hands-on experiences, classroom environments, and teaching techniques. Our approach to this project includes defining local and industry skill needs, evaluating training program offerings, identifying gaps between needs and training program offerings, and providing recommendations to addressing the gaps. The City will receive digital copies of the training curriculum, assessments, video content and related files at the end of the project. The culmination of this project will lead to the delivery of exemplary utility services for over a million residents in the Tucson metro area.

Overall, EDSI’s foundation for success is the collaborative and iterative approach to our work. Continuous improvement, re-evaluation, and ongoing feedback loops with our customers ensure the highest quality trainings are created and deliverables truly meet the needs of the organization.

Q6: There was a strong train-the-trainer component to this project – what did that involve and why is it important?

KG: Many of the clients we work with- including the City of Tucson – are not professional instructors; they have learned their trade as frontline workers and have moved into instructor roles. To assist our clients, EDSI developed a 2-day train-the-trainer program to provide staff with the basic concepts of adult learning theory, curriculum development, and classroom management. We always recommend that our client’s designated instructors go through the 2-day training to be able to continue sharing the new knowledge and processes as time goes on. During train-the-trainer sessions with the City of Tucson, EDSI instructors are preparing to delve into the new curriculum developed as a result of this project, providing the City’s instructors an opportunity to become familiar with the curriculum and how to deliver it.

EDSI’s Innovative Learning Solutions (ILS) division serves a diverse portfolio of clients in varying sectors and industries. The ILS team members are “facilitators of learning,” and work toward empowering participants to take ownership of the learning process. Taking a behaviorist approach, EDSI instruction focuses on delivering solid curriculum that structures the environment to maximize learning potential. Concepts surrounding active learning, creating a motivational learning environment, promotion of critical thinking, and contextualized instruction guide our instructors as they create challenging and engaging learning opportunities.

At the core of all of this is practical, hands-on, experiential learning opportunities that allow learners the opportunity to apply what they learn in real-life scenarios and situations. Using the Socratic Method, EDSI instructors focus heavily on encouraging learners to think through situations to apply existing knowledge, make connections and ultimately think on their own to solve problems.

Q8: Tell me more about the types of training and specific work that was done for some of your clients across the U.S.

BL: A common theme across our previous projects with utilities was conducting Knowledge Loss Risk Assessments, and developing risk mitigation plans to document and transfer critical knowledge

Our work with Pennsylvania American Water (PAAW) started with PAAW’s Maintenance Services department, whose technicians were focused on high-level instrument and control setup and troubleshooting. Working closely with PAAW technicians, the EDSI team created training documents, including a SCADA Troubleshooting Guidebook, which comprised a series of logic trees that identified general SCADA troubleshooting processes, courses of actions to take when water treatment plants go down, and how to isolate and manage the zones within the different Western Pennsylvania water systems. Other customized training materials included a station startup guidebook and a training guide describing the specifications, installation and maintenance procedures for flow meters, pressure reducing valves, and other control valves.

The EDSI team also worked with PAAW to develop SCADA Troubleshooting and Manual Operations training for their Hershey, West Shore and Yardley water treatment plants. These training programs included instructions for plant operations, assuming a total loss of SCADA, with special attention to calculating and delivering correct chemical dosages, and manual filter backwashes, charts showing name and purpose of RTUs, connections between them, including remote sites, and pictures of RTUs and local controls, instructions for dealing with partial loss of SCADA or RTU communication, charts showing the key controls (outputs) and analyzer/instrumentation (inputs) connected to each RTU, and lists of action steps if the RTU is out of service.

Q10: What best practices can you share with other regions who desire a modernized training plan for their city utility departments?

KG: EDSI approaches all our projects as a partnership with our clients. Initial meetings include a review of the scope of work, project plan, and deliverables. If possible, a tour of the workplace should be requested in order to really get a feel for the work and existing processes. It is important to understand that our role is to do this work, and that the City’s Project Team has other responsibilities to perform related to their regular jobs.

To give you a glance at how EDSI starts up this type of project, here is our 5-step process:

1. EDSI engages with the city’s project team to conduct the initial job task analysis.
2. EDSI instructional design team gathers needed information, develops drafts, and executes needed revisions and expansions of the developed material.
3. Multiple meetings are scheduled and take place in-person or virtually with the city’s project team and subject matter experts.
4. Timeline is finalized, with each task outlined and interactions between the EDSI team and the city’s project team are structured.
5. Throughout the process, weekly check-in meetings take place to review project status and deliverables.