Training the world
Today, a set of Mastersizer 3000’s complete with accessories and tools left the company to start its journey to the Malvern office in Kobe, Japan. In a few days’ time my colleague and I will fly off to meet this shipment in order to start the next round of engineer service training. This will be our second two-week spell of Mastersizer 3000 training in the Far East as only a few months ago we were in Shanghai providing introductory training on the same instruments. Our plan this time is to provide update training to our Japanese engineers during week one and our distributor partners during week two. The event will see sixteen engineers trained which will help strengthen the support we provide to our customers in countries such as; Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Planning an event like this is no mean feat and the whole thing starts by trawling the calendars of each of the countries concerned in order to find a convenient time to hold the training. You may be surprized to discover how many festivals, public holidays and feast days pepper the Far Eastern calendars at this time of year so it’s important to select the time carefully so that none of the attendees are too disadvantaged.
It’s also important to keep costs down for all concerned so choosing the right location for the training is vital as; import duties, visa conditions, hotel and transport costs vary widely from country to country. When the location and timing has been decided then an invitation is sent out and the job of co-ordinating flights, transfers and hotel accommodation starts. I have been fortunate in being able to leave this task to a colleague of mine in Japan; she has done an excellent job of getting the trainees organised so I feel confident that when I get to Japan I will at least find others there to teach.
On our return to the UK we will continue with our scheduled service training courses for the Mastersizer 3000 and other products and within a few weeks my colleague and I will be off again, this time to the US where we will provide further service training to our North and South American colleagues.