NDA Launches Online Training System

The National Demolition Association (NDA) has launched an online training system offering more than 2,000 eLearning courses that meet the needs of the construction industry. NDA’s Online Training, powered by Portico Learning Solutions, is available to NDA members and the industry at large.

“As the leading authoritative voice of the demolition industry, we decided to take the initiative by making these essential courses available to professionals involved in the demolition process in areas such as environmental, health and safety, transportation and IT skills,” says Michael Taylor, CAE, executive director of the NDA. “We identified Portico as the premier source of custom eLearning course development and decided to partner with them on this ambitious undertaking.”

The self-paced online interactive training courses feature a course management program that tracks how much of a course has been completed, which sections have been visited and how many modules the user has completed and been tested on.

“Users can start and stop courses as needed, while the system remembers for them exactly where they left off,” explains Taylor.  

Once a course is purchased, users can return and review it as many times as they wish during a 12-month period. As users complete each course module, testing takes places and a grade is instantly issued. When all requirements are fulfilled, the system issues a unique certificate of completion to the user.

“As we designed the NDA’s Online Training system, we wanted to combine the intuitive ease of eCommerce that most people know, with eLearning,” Taylor explains. “We also want to share the in-depth experience of the demolition industry with other construction professionals by offering extremely valuable courses on topics like fall protection, dealing with bloodborne pathogens, and courses with OSHA standardized content that is vetted by industry experts.

In addition to courses aimed at the technical aspects of the construction industry, the educational offering provides courses for every aspect of business management, including IT and business skills, desktop computer skills, medical and legal compliance, human resources training, project management and Six Sigma.

The NDA’s Online Training portal is found within the NDA Learning Center that has links to the NDA Safety Talks series, the Demolition Safety Manual and the Lead-in-Construction employee training program.  

The site can be reached by clicking on the following link -- Online Site.

At present, the NDA’s Online Training program is available for individual use. In early 2011, the Association plans to roll out a courseware management program specifically for corporate use. It will enable companies to track the continuing education programs for all of its employees.

For more information on the NDA’s Online Training system, visit the NDA website at www.demolitionassociation.com for call (800) 541-2412.