Mumbai, 7th Dec 2010- The Hazardous Area Instrumentation intensive training workshop held in Mumbai on 3rd Dec 2010 by Abhisam Software was a roaring success, some may call it an “explosive” success!

Over 75 engineers as well as senior C level executives from various Indian and International companies enthusiastically participated in the event, held at Mumbai’s Hotel Kohinoor Continental, which is very conveniently located close to the airport. This was a big advantage as several participants from cities outside Mumbai (like Chennai and New Delhi)  also attended the event.

Participants were from end user industries such as Essar, Tata Power, Reliance, National Peroxide and others; from automation and component suppliers such as Siemens, P+F, Endress & Hauser, Chemtrols, Forbes Marshall, Pyroban and others ; engineering consultants such as Shaw Rolta , SNC Lavalin and others; construction companies such as HCC and others; as well as independent engineering consultants. All participants were unanimous in their feedback about the workshop in a single word… Excellent!

The workshop covered the most important areas in the field such as

* Area Classification/Material & Temperature Classification

*  Selection of explosion protected equipment

*  Intrinsic Safety

* Design of pressurized/purged panels & enclosures in hazardous areas

* Fieldbus in Hazardous Areas

* Inspection of hazardous area equipment

* Certification and Testing (including ATEX)

The best part was a face to face Question and Answer session, where the participants asked their most pressing problems and got solutions from the panel of experts present. This lively discussion went on for quite some time. A lot of the participants wanted this to be held over two days,  because as one participant expressed “this is a lot of information and knowledge to absorb in a day!”  All participants received training material in the form of books, manual, CDs and white papers.

If you would like us to organize a similar event in your location, please contact us!

So what would e-learning be in the year 2020-exactly ten years from now? We, at Abhisam Software who are heavily into e-learning courses, believe that this will be the ONLY kind of learning that works in a few years time, but the point is that e-learning in those future years will be totally different than as we see it now. Here’s an interesting video that shows Captain Spock in his Starship Enterprise expounding on his e-learning (or simply “learning” as the e will then be superfluous).

If you have noticed the headlines in the press recently, they are

• Gas prices go through the roof !
• Driving anywhere is now unaffordable !
• Economic recession stares us in the face !
• Skills shortage in engineering fields !
• Immigration reform- Should we agree to a “guest worker” program?
• Budgets slashed as companies get into cost-cutting mode
• Gamers grow in numbers

So what’s new that am I saying here?

All this is well known.

Well, all this together, means just one thing—-that the good old days of e-learning are back!

Remember a few years ago, when e-learning was touted to be the next big thing, but none of us really saw it take off and reach its full potential. That’s because the right time for e-learning to take off was not then , but now.

It is a fact that in an economic downturn, companies will slash jobs as well as other costs to stay afloat. But it is also a fact that if a worker or any professional gets up to date on newer skills that are in demand in the market, the jobs are almost assured. In fact downturn or no downturn, there is currently a large shortage of skills in many professions today. The only way to build up these skills quickly is by training large numbers of workers and professionals in newer technologies by using not age-old methods of seminars, classrooms and blackboard based teaching but by…. you guessed it right, by e-learning!

E-learning is the perfect solution to all the woes expressed in the headlines given above. How?

Read on below….

• High Gas prices means that commuting to classes is not very smart-get into an e-learning course instead! (University students have started doing this)
• Economic recession-get trained in newer skills fast, so that you can protect yourself from a downturn. Again e-learning is the fastest, most practical solution.
• Skills shortage in engineering today-less kids enroll today in engineering courses, leading to a shortage of fresh engineers. Amongst those who are still available, the set of skills they have is obsolete ; how to get them up to the benchmarks fast?  Simple, by e-learning of course!
• Instead of guest workers, wouldn’t it make sense to re-train existing workers, who may be getting laid off? Which is the fastest, least costliest option to do this? E-learning of course!
• E-learning costs have continued to come down over the years, due to lower costs of hardware and better technology. Which means that penny pinching companies will find it a great solution for training their employees without breaking the bank.
• A larger number of people in the workforce today are kinda more comfortable today with computers, gaming and hi-tech gadgets. So there is no tecno-resistance as compared to the earlier generation of workers. In fact at many companies a decade ago, I know that many e-learning initiatives could not really get off the ground due to the low computer penetration and suspicion about computers in general (among the workforce of that day). This is simply not true today. Hence there is no “user-resistance” to e-learning today. Which is why it will succeed today even more.

Now is a great time to be in the field of e-learning.

We are happy to be in these exciting times in this area.

Check out some of our e-learning courses today like Hazardous Area Instrumentation, RFID , Gas Monitors and now Safety Instrumented Systems too.