Technical and Procedure Writer Training and PPA Certification Courses

Training

New Training Options!!!

Now Offering: PPA Certification courses and add-on modules.

Procedure Solutions Management is the industry leader in providing human-factored technical writing courses for procedures and work instructions. These courses provide skill enhancement for all levels of writers and procedure program managers. We developed and provided the first industry standard human-factored technical writing course in 2008 and have taught nearly 20,000 students publicly and on-site at client locations.

Our courses target:

Procedure Professional Association (PPA) Certification
Understanding of Procedure Program roles and responsibilities
Skill enhancement for procedure and work instruction preparation personnel
High-level Management of procedure programs and decision making impacts
Procedure Writing Training – Technical and Administrative
Work Planner Training

All courses are energizing and interactive. Contact us about providing training on-site or customizing any training courses for your organization.

Online (PPA) Procedure Writer Certification Course

Become a Certified Procedure Writer…

From the comfort of your home or office.

Learn from your home.

PSM’s mission has always been to make you successful by providing industry-leading human-factoring tools, knowledge, and expertise. The Online Procedure Professionals Association (PPA) Technical Writer Certification is a 20-hour course with a certification exam at the end. This is an excellent opportunity for anyone involved in the development of procedures, policies, or work instructions – program managers, authors, reviewers, beginners to seasoned veterans looking to enhance their skills.

This class is taught by PSM’s founder and COB, Stephen McCord. With 38 years of operations/maintenance experience and procedure program/process/upgrade consulting, he has been integral to the development of industry-wide human-factored procedure and work instruction program standards. He has provided training/consultation to nearly 100 companies and 20,000 individuals worldwide.

Please note: This course does NOT include procedure template training. That is a separate optional add-on module.

Course Fee: $585

Course Schedule (Fall) –The fall online course will take place from 8am to 12pm ET on the following days:

Day 1: October 15th, 8-12PM ET
Day 2: October 16th, 8-12PM ET
Day 3: October 17th, 8-12PM ET
Day 4: October 22nd, 8-12PM ET
Day 5: October 23rd, 8-12PM ET

Course Schedule (Winter) –The winter online course will take place from 8am to 12pm ET on the following days:

Day 1: January 14th, 8-12PM ET
Day 2: January 15th, 8-12PM ET
Day 3: January 16th, 8-12PM ET
Day 4: January 21st, 8-12PM ET
Day 5: January 22nd, 8-12PM ET

*Specialized Administrative Process Procedure and Planner Modules are available as OPTIONAL add-ons to the PPA courses. Please see below for additional details.

These are online courses taught by a live instructor. Attendance is required at all 5 sessions. A personal computer with webcam/mic, the ability to install conferencing software, and an internet connection are required. Spots are limited and registration is required.

Note for PPA Procedure Writer Certification: In addition to the course, there will be an exam fee of $150. This fee includes handling/technology and is required by the Procedure Professionals Association (PPA). PSM DOES NOT process this fee. Attendees will have to register and pay through PPA website.

https://www.ppaweb.org/product/procedure-writer-certification/

Special Instructions:

On the Checkout Page under ORDER NOTES (OPTIONAL), please write, “Taking PPA Procedure Writer Course through Procedure Solutions Management.”
Forward copy of PPA Certification receipt to training@proceduresolutionsmgmt.com to complete your registration for the exam.

Course Modules

NEW! Course Module – Procedure Template Training Module

Introducing our HIGHLY requested Procedure Template Training Add-On Module!

This training utilizes our very own Microsoft Word macro-enabled procedure template to help you format procedures that seamlessly maintain consistency, standardize the format of your content effectively, and reduce human performance error traps.

This interactive course taught by our Operations Director, Jennifer Smith, will give you hands-on experience putting an entire procedure into a macro-enabled procedure template. Jennifer will talk in-depth about what macros are, how to use macro-enabled buttons, and provide exercises to give you experience using macros to create steps, substeps, bullets, conditional steps, notes, cautions, warnings, and so much more!

PLEASE NOTE: This training is offered as an add-on module to our PPA Procedure Writer Certification Courses. Previous attendance at one of our Procedure Writer Certification Courses is REQUIRED.

Fee: $235

Course Schedule (Fall): This OPTIONAL module will add an additional day to the fall PPA Course and will take place from 1pm to 5pm ET on the following day:

Day 6: October 24th, 1-5PM ET

Course Schedule (Winter): This OPTIONAL module will add an additional day to the fall PPA Course and will take place from 1pm to 5pm ET on the following day:

Day 6: January 23rd, 1-5PM ET

Course Module – Specialized Administrative Process Procedure Module

This is an OPTIONAL 4-hour add-on module that focuses on Administrative Procedures. It is taught by a live instructor and will add an additional day. It is designed to increase awareness of the impacts administrative process procedures have on an organization’s safety, efficiency, and costs. All levels of personnel involved with the responsibility for oversight, creation, or implementation of administrative process procedures can significantly benefit from attending.

This module discusses the basic concepts ranging from history to implementation unique to administrative process instructions. The attendee will learn how human-factoring and administrative processes function together to provide reliable, consistent instructions. The instruction identifies opportunities and challenges facing the professional responsible for technology, legislation and regulation implemented by administrative process procedures.

Fee: $235

Course Schedule (Fall): This OPTIONAL module will add an additional day to the fall PPA Course and will take place from 8am to 12pm ET on the following day:

Day 6: October 24th, 8-12PM ET

Course Schedule (Winter): This OPTIONAL module will add an additional day to the fall PPA Course and will take place from 8am to 12pm ET on the following day:

Day 6: January 23rd, 8-12PM ET

Course Module – PPA Work Planner Certification

This is an OPTIONAL 4-hour add-on module that focuses on PPA Planner Certification. It is taught by a live instructor and will add an additional day.

Fee: $235

Course Schedule (Fall): This OPTIONAL module will add an additional day to the fall PPA Course and will take place from 8am to 12pm ET on the following day:

Day 7: October 25th, 8-12PM ET

Course Schedule (Winter): This OPTIONAL module will add an additional day to the fall PPA Course and will take place from 8am to 12pm ET on the following day:

Day 7: January 24th, 8-12PM ET

Note for PPA Planner Certification: In addition to the course, there will be an exam fee of $200. This fee includes handling/technology and is required by the Procedure Professionals Association (PPA). PSM DOES NOT process this fee. Attendees will have to register and pay through the PPA website.

https://www.ppaweb.org/product/work-planner-procedure-writer-bundle/

Special Instructions:

On the Checkout Page under ORDER NOTES (OPTIONAL), please write, “Taking PPA Work Planner Writer Course through Procedure Solutions Management.”
Forward copy of PPA Certification receipt to training@proceduresolutionsmgmt.com to complete your registration for the exam.

Cancellation Policy:

You may request to cancel your registration for a refund up to seven (7) days before the first day of the class, but this refund will be subject to a 7% cancellation fee. Cancellations requested less than seven (7) days before the first day of the class may not receive a refund, but you may request to take the class on a different date. There will be absolutely no refunds once the course has started. When you register for a class, you agree to these terms.

Procedure Professionals Association (PPA) Certification Course PLUS

Various industries are increasingly identifying human performance challenges resulting in negative trends in safety, quality and production. Inspection agencies such as the NRC, INPO, OSHA, and CSB, are identifying significant gaps in performance resulting from poorly written and insufficiently maintained procedures including weaknesses in procedure use and adherence guidance. As a result of these negative trends, industry leaders in the nuclear field came together at the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) and developed three key standards to reverse these trends:

PPA-AP-907.001, Procedure Process Description
PPA-AP-907.005, Procedure Writer’s Manual
INPO 11-003, Procedure and Work Instruction Use & Adherence

Procedure Solutions Management employs three of the original leads involved in creating the industry standards upon which the PPA Writer’s Certification Course is based. They remain involved in the standards today and have trained other company’s PPA certified instructors.

The three standards are widely used across the nuclear industry and are increasingly being adopted in the Transmission & Distribution, Gas & Electric, Refinery, Pharmaceutical and Government areas. Despite the efforts to adopt these standards, inspection agencies and root cause analysis have continued to identify gaps in performance resulting from insufficiently trained personnel that are required to develop procedures and work instructions. As a result, human performance challenges continue to be imbedded during procedure and work instruction authoring with existing errors going unidentified.

Procedure Solutions Management’s PPA Procedure Writer Certification Course is taught by a PPA certified instructor and provides the industry standards PLUS:

The WHY behind the rules. Providing an understanding of the writing rules enables students to apply the principles in authoring documents. Students will become change agents facilitating in education and cultural change of the organization.
Organizing and sequencing steps. A method that is so effective in identifying human factor challenges at the step level in and out of the classroom that we copyrighted it.
Procedure program impact. Lesson and exercises on procedure program, human factored technical procedure challenges, and operational decision, giving writers a comprehensive understanding of the impact procedures have on improving human performance, consistency, and efficiency resulting in better safety, reliability, and production.
Real industry exercises and tools. Students will receive technical and administrative (process) procedure examples and exercises and a fully-functional macro-enabled procedure template to develop a full-length technical procedure.

All classes are taught by a Procedure Professional Association (PPA) certified instructor. This is an excellent course for anyone involved in the technical or administrative procedure or work instruction process – program managers, authors, reviewers, beginners to seasoned veterans looking to enhance their skills.

Standard or customized classes are available for corporate training.

In-person private classes are available to companies interested in Procedure Solutions Management’s PPA Procedure Writer Certification Course. In-person private classes include:

Hard copies of the course material.
Real-time practical exercise to simulate a professional work environment.
Professional 2010 MS-Word Procedure template for practice at home.
Procedure Writer Human Performance Self Checklist to utilize throughout your procedure writing career.
Human Factored Procedure Development document — a procedure on how to write a procedure.
Change Management Consideration Checklist.

For additional information on corporate or public classes, to register, or for a listing of companies who have used our training, contact us at info@proceduresolutionsmgmt.com or 800-278-8904 or click the appropriate link below:

General Interest

Human-Factored Administrative Process Procedures for Compliance

Overview:

Instructions for non-technical activities such as human resource, compliance and ethics, environmental, emergency response, security and others have unique and complex interfaces and mistakes can have substantial consequences.

This class increases awareness of the impacts administrative process procedures have on an organization’s safety, efficiency, and costs. All levels of personnel involved with the responsibility for oversight, creation, or implementation of administrative process procedures can significantly benefit from attending.

This class discusses the basic concepts ranging from history to implementation unique to administrative process instructions. The attendee will learn how human-factoring and administrative processes function together to provide reliable, consistent instructions. The instruction identifies opportunities and challenges facing the professional responsible for technology, legislation and regulation implemented by administrative process procedures.

Unlike many seminars and training, participants will leave this course with new or expanded knowledge, of concepts and methods that can be applied immediately to their daily work along with detailed resource materials for reference.

This class is presented in a professional manner which encourages questions and interactive discussions between the attendees and the instructor on the issues they are facing and individual learning goals. The instructor takes what could be a dry topic and turns it into an enjoyable and rewarding learning experience.

The following topics will be included:

History and background of instructions in a regulated industry
Successes and lessons learned from across multiple industries
Incorporating human-factored concepts in administrative process instructions to minimize human error
The changing roles and responsibilities of writers, reviewers, and owners of administrative process procedures
Paradigm shift occurring within the industry and marketplace
Economically and effectively manage changing customer’s needs, wants, expectations, and demographics as it relates to administrative procedures.

Learning Outcomes:

Gain a sound basic understanding of the history of procedures in a regulated industry.
Analyze the paradigm shift occurring in industries and the impact on administrative process procedures.
Gain a sound understanding of human-factored administrative procedures.
Assess the impact of different step types to achieve greater understanding and consistency in performance.
Analyze information to achieve the correct level of level of detail for consistent, sustainable results.
Discuss change management considerations to facilitate effective implementation of new or revised human factored administrative procedures within an organization

Instructional Methods

Industry Operating Experience, PowerPoint presentations, interactive learning sessions, and group discussion will be used as instructional methods.

Featured Instructor

Stephen C. McCord
Founder and Chairman of the Board
Procedure Solutions Management, LLC

Mr. McCord has more than 39 years’ experience with the operation and maintenance of U.S. Naval steam plants, commercial nuclear plants, and industrial facilities. Steve acted as project manager or participant on several electric industry initiatives sponsored by agencies such as Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) that has transformed the industry in the development of human factored procedure and work instruction program standards such as Procedure Change Process, Procedure and Work Instruction Writer’s Manual, and Procedure and Work Instruction Use and Adherence. In addition, he has chaired industry groups, lead and participated on numerous industry procedure and operational assessments, accident investigations, and benchmark activities. He has addressed industry associations and provided training and workshops across the US, Canada, and Europe. He consults on programs and processes designed to improve human performance resulting in greater performance consistency, sustainable regulatory compliance and cost reductions.

Work Planner Training

Procedure Solutions Management has participated with industry leaders to reverse these trends.

The course is specifically targeted to help work planning organizations by developing or improving the skills of work planners in order to write work instructions in a human factored manner. The course or variations of has been taught to a growing audience with immediate results.

Procedure Solutions Management offers a detailed course using industry format and content standards and procedure use and adherence rules to write human-factored work instructions. The Work Planner Human Performance Writing Course Includes:

Hands on writing exercises using industry grade macro-enables MS Word 2010 template.
Electronically provided course materials.
Professional instructor who helped develop the industry standards for work planning.

For additional information, contact one of our professional instructors below:

Stephen McCord

smccord@proceduresolutonsmgmt.com

800-278-8904 ext. 701

Darlene McCord

dmccord@proceduresolutionsmgmt.com

800-278-8904 ext. 702

Click here for instructor profiles.

Procedure and Work Instruction Use and Adherence

Today’s work and regulation environment, demands a strong regard among all employees for procedure and work instruction use and adherence.

A key to improving human performance is ensuring that personnel use and follow procedures consistently. This course is designed to make champions out of students that will promote procedure and work instruction use and adherence and effect change within your company culture. Procedure Solutions Management does this by:

Using industry standard as the foundation for the training material.
Reviewing current industry examples so true appreciation and understanding is developed.
Providing practical exercises as reinforcement.

Preparation for this course may include a pre-review of the client’s current procedure use and adherence program to identify current gaps from the industry standard and company events.

This course is taught by Stephen McCord, Founder and CEO. He has nearly 40 years of experience working with senior management and leading change. Click here for his profile.

Training

Become a Certified Procedure Writer…

From the comfort of your home or office.

Cancellation Policy:

Overview:

Learning Outcomes:

Instructional Methods

Featured Instructor

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