Global training puts world of Codes and Standards in reach of engineers

Emily M. Smith
ASME NEWS

The launch of 10 courses on ASME Codes in Latin America in the fall is part of an initiative by the Continuing Education Institute to make the code more globally accessible to working engineers by giving them code materials in their local language at a locally affordable price.

Ten instructors are under contract with ASME to develop courses that CEI will train them to teach. The instructors — from Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Trinidad and Venezuela — will develop materials, course notes and PowerPoint slides for a number of code-related topics.

The first courses will be offered in Venezuela in September. During a reception for program instructors in Buenos Aires in March, two of them were given contracts to teach their courses, possibly before September, indicating the high level of interest in these courses.

With the exception of Trinidad, all of these courses will be taught in Spanish and course notes will be in Spanish. Courses and course notes for Trinidad will be in English.
Under the business model created for CEI's Global Training program, these courses will be owned by ASME. Instructors will set course fees to meet local market needs, market the courses, and determine how often the courses are offered.

Course instructors, who must be ASME members, will pay ASME 20 percent of the gross tuition, and return student profiles and course evaluations to ASME.
ASME will handle marketing and promotion online and in print brochures. The Society will also provide training support, ASME Certificates of Completion, and tracking of CEI Units for seven years.

CEI will create a master set of materials, identify and train instructors, review and qualify instructors, and provide support for the instructor's franchise business.

The first training session for the franchise business took place March 20 during the meeting of the Latin America and Caribbean Subregional Operating Board in Buenos Aires. Attendees included the instructors who are contracted to develop courses for ASME and an engineer who plans to develop a course.

The business model that CEI set up for Latin America will be used to meet the educational needs of engineers in other parts of Region XIII. This month, ASME staff will travel to Malaysia to begin determining the needs of engineers in Asia.

For more information, contact Shaun Fletcher, manager of Continuing Education, at fletchers@asme.org.

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