Industry Collaboration: Humber FAST Continuous Professional Learning Cultivates Custom Robot Automation Course for Magna

Driving Industry Collaboration

Lead by Associate Dean, Dr. Dave Smiderle and Manager, Jacqueline Smith, the Humber FAST CPL team worked in collaboration with Magna’s division to design a customized program that would increase the competency of its electrical team when it comes to skills required to trouble shoot robot automation issues.

“Continuous Professional Learning provides competency-based training opportunities for adult learners where they are able to gain current, industry relevant skills from experienced industry experts in a relatively short period of time,” says Dr. Smiderle. “Our collaboration with Magna is the perfect example of partnering with industry. Together, we determined what the learners needed to be able to perform on the job and designed the training around this objective.”

Humber FAST CPL presented a new approach that required careful planning and support especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The customized training considered the adult learners’ skill sets as it relates to the industrial setting, technological abilities, and safety precautions. Developing trust, openness to ask questions and provide feedback led to opportunities to validate training strategies and account for the adult learners’ prior work experience and strengths.

Once the learning objectives were determined, the program agenda was developed. A list of specific failure modes often observed on the shop floor were provided to the Humber FAST CPL team to include as exercises during lab work.

Under the direction of Humber FAST Trainer, Dr. Mehrdad Iravani Tabrizipour, the team developed a comprehensive course outline along with an orientation session and testing plan. The program blended on-line classes with one-on-one in-lab training on a robot at Humber College followed by hands-on lab work at Magna, working with the shop floor robots. This provided the opportunity for the learners to become familiar with the shop floor robot environment and transfer their learning to the actual work environment. By taking this approach, learners were also able to overcome any potential apprehensions with applying a new skill.

Left: Heather McCue
Middle: Jacqueline Smith
Right: Yuka Maruyama
Centre: Dr. David Smiderle

Learn. Adapt. Pivot.

Magna identified initially six adult learners and provided key insights into the skill level and competency of each trainee including their different starting points of knowledge and experience. It was determined that the best way to approach the program was to divide the adult leaners into two Cohorts – Cohort A and Cohort B.

“This tailor-made training and one-on-one on-site training provided the opportunity to take students within each cohort with different starting points and challenges and work more closely with the trainer to ensure that when all of them reached the finish line, they achieved if not exceeded all our learning expectations,” says Yuka Maruyama, Engineering & Maintenance Manager, Unimotion-Gear. “Being able to apply what they learned in their actual work environment was the tipping point.”

Cohort A students, Miklos, David, and Titi attended the two-month program in the summer of 2021 under a concentrated lens that monitored progress and quality assurance to ensure an effective and positive learning experience.

“Regular touch-point meetings on learning progress, quality assurance and effective change management during the implementation stage was the key in securing a successful transfer-of-learning,” says Jacqueline Smith. “As the program progressed, challenges were identified in real time so we could adjust our training solutions to support the learners’ needs. I guess you could say we applied the fundamentals of continuous professional learning! We continually learned and adjusted the program to gain students’ buy-in, build their confidence and ultimately complete the learning objectives set out by Magna.”

Right: Learner Titi practicing on a UMG robot