Should inspectors with only classroom training be banned from our profession?

http://www.nachi.org/classroomsharm.htm

I was chatting with an ex-plumber who is in home inspection school (classroom) and was explaining that he had to waste time sitting through the slow (for him) pace of the plumbing portions but was barely hanging on in the electrical portions as electrical was his weakness.

It reminded me of how harmful it is to consumers to have home inspectors train at the pace of the teacher instead of a pace matched to their own personal strengths and weaknesses.

Anyway, he is taking our electrical courses online because he can go at his own pace and repeat, something he couldn’t do in a classroom setting.

It got me thinking… maybe home inspectors who only received classroom training should be banned from the profession for life.

Leave it up to the states. This is the land of the Free!

Most all industries require some on-the-job training before getting their credentials or going out by themselves to do the job.

Yes. Especially in our business, where most all homes are different. You cannot substitude any type of class for actual experience. How to act, speak, communicate, dress, business areas, all are hard to teach in any class, on-line or otherwise.

Classroom education is important, and part of the process, but cannot be totally relied upon to become a home inspector.

Yes, but… most all industries also require some form of formal classroom training. All the OTJ training and experience traditionally occurs after the classroom experience.

Try getting *any *job in Minnesota if you don’t have a college degree, typically a four year degree.

I do not know of any trade where the have not served an apprentice .
I was 40 years in Construction (Electrician )and then mentored with my son for many months and have done well as a Homie .
I have mentored many wish to be Inspectors first trip for free then $50;00 a trip .
This has saved many a lot of money and has given them the truth as how much time and money they need to invest .
They have not wasted 3 years and $10,000;00 to be one 0f the 90% who fail .
We have had some who are now making a great living at this industry .
I feel mentoring like an apprenticeship is the better way to go .
Yes some have made it on their own but $10,000;00 ,3 years & 90% do not.

Personally, I do MUCH better at an Online Course, for the exact reasons Nick mentioned.

Well there is nothing wrong with that, the 90% who fail leave this percentage to the ones who don’t fail—:stuck_out_tongue:

At least you tried, and made some money on the side, with only a 10% competition rate…can’t beat that with a stick…!

Nick, did you forgot to post the homie inspector cartoon associated with this

how many have been expelled for life from this association?

with all that’s offered here by an exceptional group of staff and basically a handful of seasoned pros a little house cleaning right here would be a great place to start.

am i to understand your novel concept?

“ban everyone classroom trained”

is this to include those that started before any online edu was even available…

where’s my final check? ;~))

Classroom, tests, on the job training, and continuing education are all pieces of the same puzzle. They compliment each other. BTW many classroom training, if not all, have incorporated group field inspections, perhaps it should be expanded for a better outcome.

That would be me - classroom trained. Of course, I have completed diverse training since then, including online and classroom training, not to mention 5000+ inspections.

Both types of training have their strengths and weaknesses. It’s my opinion that it’s less about the forum, and more about the person taking the training. In addition, the quality of the material and instructor/author plays a large role successful training.

Yes. Particularly, this guy.

Banks give money to Builders with Classroom Training to build a Home…
Taxpayers give money to AHJ with Classroom Training to approve a Home.

Why is it that Home Inspections are even needed when homes are Built and Inspected with so much Education completed?

:slight_smile:

I started in the business three years ago. My background was in carpentry with a small amount of plumbing and electrical background. I thought it would be an easy transition for me to get started right away and be the best inspector in the area because of my back ground. I learned very quickly how wrong I was. I still struggle with some of the electrical today and have taken many courses to improve myself. I spent a week with an inspector when I started along with a two week training course. It was almost three months before I felt I was ready to do my first inspection. I have done 32 ride alongs since then just to improve my abilities. I have taken almost all the online courses Nachi has to offer along with My WETT certification. I think everyone needs to do ride alongs even after they start doing paid inspections. You can never have two much knowledge. JMO

Members of InterNachi that fail to complete the minimum 24 hours per year of continued education should be, at least from this organization. I think that may be a fairly large percent.

I also feel the bar should be raised to become a Certified InterNACHIMember with logo use privileges.

I was trained by classroom for both home inspections and real estate. But to have ONLY classroom training and nothing else doesn’t cut it these days, IMHO.

Banned?? By who?

As INACHI does not Certify HI’s how would you ban them? :wink:

“Hey Mr. Home Inspection Teacher. Now that we got to listen to the guy in the front row tell his home inspection war story for 20 minutes, then we had to listen to you explain what a joist is to the bozo in the back of the room… can we please stop so that we can have a cigarette break? Can’t wait to get back to your PowerPoint presentation. Is it lunchtime yet?”

LOL

I agree with Nick up to a point … Inspectors with ONLY online or home correspondence course work should be banned from doing home inspections.

Most of those that I have personally seen have been idiots. As a 30+ year inspector I’d never hire an inspector with only online training.

However, a combination of all 3 types would be my ideal inspector.

As an example as a Trainer, when I started out 15 years ago teaching a 2 week long / 110 hour course I noticed real quickly that MANY of the students were out of work and coming from jobs like school teachers, computer programmers, IT people, engineers, etc. - AND they had no prior trade experience. They did not know a TPR valve from a double-tap. They were mostly smart and could read a book and pass a test fairly easily BUT had no real grasp on what the heck we were talking about or WHY.

Then there were my contractor students … 20 years as a self-trained plumber, electrician, HVAC guy, remodeler, etc (little real formal schooling in their trade - just hands-on picked up a hammer and started). Most were pretty sharp on 1 or 2 systems BUT knew next to nothing about anything else AND a lot of what they’d been doing for years was wrong.

I spent so much time teaching BASICS or UNTEACHING wrong concepts, that my classes could get way behind real easily …

So I changed my teaching … I cut-off all enrollments 2 full weeks before a class start AND sent 2 videos AND a 400 page Training Manual with a 100 page Study Guide (Q & A) out in ADVANCE of class. This took an AVERAGE of 40 hours to watch, read, and complete Study Guide BEFORE they got into my class.

When they got to class they turned in the Guide Books up front for us to review to see if they’d actually done the ADVANCE homework. That was 1/4th their grade.

The 1st morning of class, they had a 2 page test to see their existing knowledge and to see how much they’d retained of their asdvance homework. Then over the next 2 weeks we had 90 hours of BUTT in the seat classroom training with demonstrators, videos, power-points, etc. Then the last 3 days we put in 20 hours of hands-on Field Inspection Training - where I took them to empty houses and had them inspect / then do a group review to see who saw what, etc.

We finished off the class with a 200 question test based upon NACHI’s, ASHI’s or NAHI’s. Then we turned them loose with 5-6 video’s, sample field checklists and 3 computer software reporting systems, code-check and about 7-8 training manuals for references.

EVEN then when they went out the door I’d think GOSH, I wish we had them another week or two. UNFORTUNATELY as many of the better inspectors on the BOARD know a HUGE amount of newbies want the bare minimum to get out in the field and walk away with 2 day training classes OR the cheapest training they can get OR take home correspondence classes AND have absolutely NO interaction with instructors or other students.

MANY new inspectors want to get into a business that has potential to generate $75,000 - $150,000 per year for a man show AND yet are not willing to give up 30 days of time to go to school BUT settle for as little as 40 hrs or LESS.

FREAKING AMAZING, but those are the ones you hope get into another line of work …

I will never forget one day years ago that my sister’s husband called me up one day to ask me where the gas cap was on his car. This was back when the gas stations were changing from full service to help-yourself.

He was a VP for IBM, with a MBA. Those letters sure helped him in real life.