Design Center Training for National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) Participant Training Program Training dates: April 20 th June 19 th, 2015 Post-Training Evaluation Report In this activity, Energy Policy Program (EPP) successfully delivered the Design Center Training program for National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) from April 20 th June 19 th, 2015 at WAPDA House, Lahore. 11 course Design Center Training was given to participants belonging from the key departments of NTDC. In order to enhance the capacity building and to empower the NTDC design department, USAID partnered with the National Transmission Dispatch Company (NTDC) at Lahore to fund and organize a seven-week classroom based training on contemporary software such as AUTOCAD, Power line, PLS Tower, PLS Pole, SAPS, ARCGIS, SAGSEC, Caisson, and Bentley STAAD-Pro, Bentley Sub-Station and Microsoft Project etc. USAID also funded the procurement of new hardware and equipment for NTDC design department. As a cost share with USAID, NTDC procured new furniture and workstations for its Design department while establishing professional relationships with NTDC to draw upon after the conclusion of the program. Number of Participants trained per course: Sr # Training Course Participants Total Male Female 1 Auto Cad 30 19 11 2 PLS CADD 14 11 3 3 PLS-Tower 14 11 3 4 PLS-POLE 11 8 3 5 SAPS 12 10 2 6 SAGSEC 17 10 7 7 CAISON 10 8 2 8 ARC-GIS 16 10 6 9 MS-Project 24 16 8 10 Bentley STAAD PRO 4 4 0 11 Bentley Sub-Station 22 16 6 At the end of the training course, post-training evaluations were conducted on June 16 and 17, 2015 at WAPDA House, Lahore with 20 participants, as rest of the participants were absent due to their international trainings and departmental exams. The feedback will be based on the sample size of 20. The participants were given a nine questions post-training evaluation feedback form to explain their valuable experience during the Design Center Training. Following are the statistics and quotes from participants responses. AID-EPP-I-00-03-00004, AID-391-TO-12-00002
Please tick in appropriate box: 5 outstanding, 4 very good, 3 satisfactory, 2 needs improvement, 1 did not meet expectations I. Program Rating Relevance to your organization s work area Structure of the training courses Did not meet expectations Needs improvement satisfactory Very good outstanding 0 1 2 12 5 0 1 8 11 0 Topics covered in the courses 1 0 9 10 0 Quality and appropriateness of course content and 1 2 8 7 2 materials Quality of Speakers/Trainers 0 4 7 7 2 Trainers/Speakers effectiveness 0 4 8 6 2 According to the rounded responses of all participants from the above stated table: 1. 60% of the participants rated as very good, 25% of the participants rated Relevance to your organization s work area as outstanding whereas, 10% rated satisfactory and 5% felt the need of improvement. 2. 55% of the participants found Structure of training courses very good, while 40% participant rated it as satisfactory and 5% of the participants felt the need of improvement. 3. 50% participants found the category Topics covered in the courses as very good, while 45% of them found it satisfactory and 5% felt the topics didn t meet their expectations. 4. 35% found Quality and appropriateness of course content and materials very good, while 40% found it to be satisfactory, whereas 10% rated it an outstanding content, 10% felt the need of improvement and 5% felt the content didn t meet their expectations. 5. 35% of the participants felt Quality of Speakers/Trainers was very good, 35% rated it as satisfactory, 10% rated it as an outstanding effort by the trainers and 20 % felt the need of improvement. 6. 40% participant s rated Trainers/Speakers effectiveness as satisfactory, while 30% rated it as very good and 10% found the effectiveness to be outstanding whereas, 20% felt the need of improvement. Please share any observations or comments regarding the NTDC Design Center trainer/training program/logistics: Participants were asked to check all the courses they have taken during the course of their training duration (the number of participant trained per course is mentioned above); followed by questions to share their observations and comments regarding the trainer, training and logistics. When asked about the trainer and logistics. When asked; almost all the participants found the training very beneficial for them w.r.t their departmental work, they elaborated: NTDC training program will prove to be very helpful in performing the future assignments in efficient and timely manner by the help of the software Training session was very good but enough laptop/computers were not available to all the participants for better practice of the course taken
Training initiative was very good but the time period was very short as compared to the course content covered during the training NTDC design center training program was very good. Content and materials were relevant to our respective fields. However, time management was not perfect. Training periods were short so we were just given the overview of most of the things which cannot help us in our field without the practical implementation of the skills learned. But for the introductory level, the training was really informative and helpful Overall the training was good and beneficial. However, the duration for software courses i.e. Bentley substation and Auto cad should have been longer to fully capture the knowledge shared. Also, trainer s communication skills should have been better, e.g. the communication issues during Bentley substation training Before you received this training, how would you describe your technical knowledge of designing new transmission lines, foundations and grid stations? Keeping in view all the responses it showed that before this training most of the participants were designing the transmission lines using the manual techniques and had very limited knowledge as how software can be used to design the same transmission lines. All of them have significantly developed knowledge of transmission lines designing through the software rather than manually, as the quoted: Before the training, most of us were designing the transmission line using the old manual techniques. Moreover, before the software training the designing of towers, poles and lines were done according to the already accepted designs. After receiving the training now we can design the towers based on specific requirements After receiving the training we can now design transmission line profiles using PLS CADD and ARCGIS for surface levels and tower positioning more efficiently and accurately The knowledge of grid station designing has improved after the training as Bentley Sub-Station is very helpful and by this tool the time wasted in manual calculation has reduced and can be one by just one simple click Before the training I used to draw design foundations of structure by manual calculations but after the training I can confidentially design the foundations using the software provided What specific skills did you gain as a result of your exposure to the software being provided allowing designing, proper scheduling, budgeting, resource allocation and reporting of NTDC s ongoing and future projects? Participants were asked to address the specific skills that they have gained during this training w.r.t their work domain; and they mentioned: After the training, now I can design the structural drawings related to 132 kv Grid Station I have learned the following skills; designing of structures and foundations, preparation of computer aided drawings using AUTOCAD, project planning and scheduling, and transmission lines and profile design using PLS CAD Being a structural design engineer, I found the software very helpful in designing expertise. Also scheduling, budgeting, resource allocation can also be done in a much more better ways than before
Now we can schedule project followed by identification of delays more promptly; saving time, cost and immediate reporting of the cause. This will help verify the strengths and weaknesses of existing towers to optimize their current designs with the help of the software As a transmission line design engineer I really improved myself as a design engineer. Now I am able to design and finalize the transmission line routes with the help of software in shorter time period which makes my work more efficient and fruitful How will you use your enhanced abilities to analyze and augment the performance of the virtually designed systems at NTDC after the training? The training strategy was based on enhancing individual s ability to analyze newly developed systems at NTDC after the training. Participants were asked to express how they will use their enhanced abilities to perform better, they shared: Virtually designed systems at NTDC are accordingly to the past experience. No doubt it works well only if we work with the new systems provided. Using software technology, at least we can try new designs and can also check their reliability in software before finalizing and implementing at larger scale The knowledge gained during the training will now help to increase the efficiency as we will use new and different software, hence reducing the time required to complete any given task Previously, draftsmen use to design the grid station profiles on the given instruction but now we can easily design the profile using the provided software effectively We have already started building virtual models of our existing towers to check their capabilities and comparing them with the existing data to optimize the line designs. Next step will be to develop or modify the structures. PLS-CADD, and SAGSEC is virtual to get optimal design and virtual texting Now I can design grid station profiles by using Auto Cad and Bentley Sub Station rather than making hard drawings. This saves times and works efficiently I can make schedules and estimate project costing by using MS Project and can easily monitor on-going projects By this training, now I am able to design sub-stations. I can create my own database. These enhance abilities will be utilized by the department and will eventually has its own capacity to design on their own How will your organization benefit from the training s objective of strengthening the NTDC design department to enhance, empower and make it self-sufficient to process and design activities in appropriate mode and to fulfill the energy infrastructure needs in a timely manner in both short-term and long-term? When asked about how the training will help achieve the training objective i.e. strengthening the NTDC design department to enhance, empower and make it self-sufficient to process and design activities in appropriate mode and to fulfill the energy infrastructure needs in a timely manner, participants mentioned: At NTDC most of the training work for 220 kv and 500 kv was/has been done by consultants. By outsourcing, NTDC have to pay lot money, which can be saved otherwise. This training made people of design department self-sufficient to design every infrastructure in house. By designing in house will not only enhance work capability but also allow NTDC to save cost and make profits
In short term, it seems that organization may not have major benefits but in long-term it will be beneficial for NTDC and for the employees. It will be more efficient, accurate and improved technically as well as managerially Short-term benefits: latest technology (software) and manuals are available to the department with trained professionals. Long-term benefits: trained professionals will train more people in their departments and hence will increase the performance of NTDC Timely completion and over reliance on the lower staff for designing delays the progress of work. The training will not only increase our skills of designing more efficiently but will help in maintaining a smooth flow of work What was missing from the design center training? Please be specific and site examples. Participants shared their respective views and stated: Training duration was short as compared to the course content. Hardware was short in trainings e.g. PLS Pole, and PLS- Tower etc. Laptops/computers were not enough as they are necessary especially in PLS-CADD, PLS-Tower and SAGSEC. Everyone should get their own laptop/computer to practice The duration of the training program was short as compared to the content because the training requires full concentration. With the given hectic schedule it wasn t possible for us to acquire the most knowledge, next time please arrange training with dedicated days for specific courses Lack of trainer s proficiency in English language which can t be understand by the participants specifically in Bentley Sub-Station ARCGIS course was not designed based on our departmental requirements Do you have any suggestions for how EPP could improve similar future trainings? All the participants have different views about how to improve future trainings; most of the participants have complained about the short time duration they suggested that the time period for such software based technical training require more time and practice, as they mentioned: I think the issue was the training duration, because when you are dealing with new software; you need 2-3 days to understand about its interfacing. When you are able to use the software interface the training duration finishes. So instead of dividing the training center in two sessions and 3 days, the whole session should be of 6 days with 3 hours for each group Training should be provided after obtaining assurance from the organization that they will spare the trainees from their office work for the training duration. Video recording and training manuals should be provided for every course for future references Similar trainings should be arrange on regular basis for better implementation of the provided software