Yachiyo Engineering Co., Ltd.(YEC) is a company that provides comprehensive construction consulting services. We believe that technical training of employees is important in order to achieve “sustainable social contribution”. Our company provides technical education for engineers engaged in engineering geology as follows;
- Daily technical education through business
- Systematic technical education within organization
- Field activities by volunteers
First, the technical education through business is provided with OJT (On-the-Job Training) and JV (joint venture) projects with design engineers on daily basis.
Second, the systematic technical education within organizations is accomplished with in-house training, regular in-house lectures and hands-on training by well-trained professionals.
Third, field activities means going on the geological hiking with volunteers.
In addition, for social contribution, YEC cooperates academic activities and provides volunteer lectures. This report discusses these points described above.
OYO Corporation is engaged in in-house education by providing on-the-job training(OJT) for geological engineers to identify non-tectonic structures in the field. The goal of the education is to have the engineers acquire the skills necessary to assess gravity-driven landslides and loosening of rocky slopes. Although geological surveys are critical in running survey of landslides, OYO emphasizes on close observation of nontectonic structures in outcrops and boring cores. Plural parties of paired trainers and trainees conducted geological survey of dam reservoir slopes as OJT to inherit and improve the skills of fieldworks, including geological mapping, distinguishing between tectonic faults and landslide slip surfaces through composite planar fabric of fracture zones, and recognition of infiltration clays as an indicator of landslides and loosening. Technical skills are not necessarily proportional to years of experience; trainers and trainees are interactive and may be compatible; the trainers are tried and tested by the trainees and vice versa. The improvement and establishment of skills take a certain amount of experience; the effects of short-term, single OJT are limited; repeated and continuous engagement in training is necessary. Such OJTs not only function as a form of in-house technical education through discussions and collaborations during field surveys but also encourage engineers to share geological perspectives.