Maintenance personnel take apart a high pressure hydraulic manifold valve to learn how it works and how to replace it, if necessary. This is one example of the training courses provided at the PCAPP Training Facility.The Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (PCAPP) Training Facility achieved a milestone this week when more than 90 percent of PCAPP employees completed required training, getting the workforce one step closer to agent operations.
Every employee is required to complete 30 hours of training, including site worker, commercial awareness, antiterrorism and accountability. Site worker training includes topics on security, hazard communication, environmental compliance and treaty awareness, among other topics, said Drew Reeves, training manager.
Some employees have training paths that take four to five months to complete. Depending upon job responsibilities, employees could be required as much as 400 hours of instruction. For example, maintenance personnel have 300 hours of required instruction and control room operators and their supervisors receive approximately 400 hours of training, Reeves said.
“While we are unlikely to ever reach 100 percent training complete due to normal personnel attrition rates and the assignment of various refresher training courses each month, passing the 90 percent training complete mark for the project indicates that we are very close to meeting our commitment to provide a trained and competent workforce for agent operations,” Reeves said.
“The training program currently includes 144 courses and refresher courses accounting for 66,627 individual training requirements for our more than 1,200 full-time employees,” said Reeves. “As of Nov. 23, 61,739 of the 66,627 training requirements, or 92.7 percent, were completed.”