The National Center for Construction, Education and Research (NCCER) is the global leader for craft skills assessment and training.  Our sponsor (NCCER) has produced formal training courses for virtually all craft disciplines and Advisory First has been accredited by NCCER to perform the craft skills assessment and training.  We have performed many assessments and have recently trained numerous craft from multiple plants for a major building products division with excellent results. Advisory First will first assesses your craft and then we will prepare a custom-fit training program, conducted at one of your plants.  We use seasoned craft instructors all with 15-30 years experience in the trade being taught.  So what’s in it for you?  Based upon many skills assessments, we have found that today’s craft, on average, have only 40-50% of the knowledge held by craft who graduated from 4-year apprentice programs.  These apprentice programs were the norm until the 1970’s and 1980’s.  The energy crisis forced companies to cut back on expenses to remain competitive.  One of the first things to go was the 4-year apprentice program.  Unfortunately, the craft who graduated from 4-year apprentice programs have retired or will do so within the next 5-10 years.  The end result is that most U.S. companies have craft with one-half the skills required to do quality work right the first time. Advisory First can help you bring your craft skills up near the Journeyman level at a reasonable cost.  We estimate that your equipment downtime due to faulty maintenance can be cut in half or more.  In addition, your craft will learn how to monitor contractor performance to ensure they are providing you quality work each and every time.  This has resulted in increased production levels, reduced maintenance costs and a positive impact to the bottom line for our clients.  In addition, quality maintenance can and will reduce safety and environmental events caused by equipment failures.