CONTINUING EDUCATION IN THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION
Elmer Haight
Bureau of Reclamation
The Bureau of Reclamation, administratively located within the Department of the Interior, was created by Congress in 1902 as the Reclamation Service. We were charged with reclaiming the arid lands of the Western United States through irrigation.
We have always provided design and construction management for multipurpose water projects including storage dams, spillways, reservoirs, water distribution pipelines, hydroelectric powerplants, canals, tunnels, and similar works. We supply water to about 10 million acres of farmland and enough electricity to meet the needs of 15 million people. Municipal and industrial water are also supplied.
We have no “hard and fast” established guide for continuing education for construction professionals. We do, however, strongly encourage continuing education for all employees in all areas and, with certain limitations, provide for the training and education.
We have always considered continuing education quite important. We also consider it much more effective when the individuals take the initiative to better themselves and broaden their skills to keep up to date in this time of rapidly changing technology. Our agency has long maintained that continuing education for our employees can be provided and/or paid for by the government as long as it is to better the performance of the employee’s official duties, i.e., to the benefit of the government.
More recently, this interpretation of what we are allowed to do has expanded to included paying for (providing) training for duties an employee can be expected to perform in the near future, closely tied to assigned duties. That is, help in growth to prepare for future responsibilities in a given job.
Most continuing education for all employees, including construction professionals, has been performed by our own agency or through other governmental agencies such as OPM, GSA, USDA, and USCOE. To a lesser
extent, training is provided by colleges and universities. On-the-job training with experienced mentors is also very valuable.
It is our approach that we should not specifically provide for employees to obtain a college degree, but we can pay for university courses that develop knowledge and skills in an individual to perform a job they currently hold in a better, more efficient manner.
In our opinion, continuing education should cover interpersonal skills such as utilizing human resources, teamwork, effective communication, etc., in conjunction with maintaining technical competence.
These are some of the areas we encourage our construction professionals to consider:
Rotation Engineer Program
Academic Courses
Technical Lecture Updates
Professional Society Participation (committees, seminars, workshops, meetings)
Varied Work Assignments
Earth and Concrete Technology Schools
Dam Safety
Value Engineering
Hazardous Materials
Partnering
We have developed what we call a “Comprehensive Construction Training Program” especially for our construction personnel. These courses cover most major types of construction, and also include Contract Administration and interpersonal courses such as oral communication, teamwork, conflict resolution, and effective listening. The courses are self-paced and some include videos.
New engineers who will progress into construction management positions after several years are provided rotation assignments to expose them to a wide variety of work and to other organizations. The work covered is tailored to scheduling, planning, design, material investigations, specifications development, cost estimating, construction inspection, quality control, and contract administration. Whenever possible, these assignments are for multipurpose water projects involving dams, pipelines, pumping plants, hydroelectric plants, roads, and buildings.
Today’s construction managers especially need training in administration of construction contracts. The “Federal Acquisition Regulations” (FARs) must be followed. Our Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR) course teaches practical contract administration for the field level professional.
We have a policy which requires licensed professional engineers and architects in certain specified positions. Because we design and construct major facilities, we
require registration as a prerequisite for our lead designers, construction engineers, field engineers, and others as appropriate. Our established policy gives guidance so management decisions can be made to determine if licensing is required, depending on what the job requires.
In some cases, we can give up to 4 hours of administrative leave for the professional engineer examination. Neither the examination fee nor the cost of licensing is reimbursed to the employee. As to periodic retesting and/or mandatory continuing education, we have no specific requirements. Administering any such requirement would be difficult and we do not have the staff to adequately cover it.
During the lunch break you are invited to visit our booth where I will show an example of one of our inspection training videos, and I will hand out a list of courses that are available. The COTR course book and other materials appropriate for use in a continuing education program also will be available for viewing.