HOW TO MAINTAIN AND IMPROVE COMPETENCE FOR ACTIVE ENGINEERS IN THE ELECTRIC POWER SECTOR

摘要

A key factor for success, both within utilitiesrnand power equipment manufacturers, is to havernpersonnel with enough and sufficient competence.rnYoung engineers coming directly from education haverngood theoretical skills but limited practical experience.rnThey must gain experience before being able to performrnuseful work. Therefore, young engineers very seldomrnneed more theoretical education. They need to face thernreality and to make mistakes (be allowed to makernmistakes) and then become skilled and experiencedrnengineers. Older engineers normally have a greatrnamount of experience. They know how things havernbeen done in the past and up till today. The risk with oldrnand stubborn engineers is that progress and new ideasrnwill be kept down. A very dangerous argument is thatrnwe do like this because we have always done like this.rnAlso young engineers become, after a while, oldrnengineers. They gain experience but they do not have arnclear picture of the progress of modern technologies.rnEngineers working within electrical utilities andrnmanufacturers, have to continuously maintain andrnimprove competence within a wide range of areas. Howrncan this be done in an effective and economic way?rnThis paper will pinpoint some items and ideas to bernconsidered.