Energy Industry Training Experience for Deborah Laurel

Laurel & Associates

Deborah Laurel

Deborah Laurel has more than 25 years of experience designing specialized energy educational programs and training the trainers who provide energy education on a local, regional and national level.

 In collaboration with subject matter experts, Deborah designed the curriculum, participant materials, facilitator guides, job aids and audiovisuals; and trained the trainers for the following programs:

National Compressed Air Challenge

Compressed Air Challenge Fundamentals
Compressed Air Challenge Advanced Training

The fact that the National Compressed Air Challenge is one of the highest rated training programs for the U.S. Department of Energy has also been attributed to Deborah Laurel’s curriculum design and train-the trainer expertise:

“In May 2004, the US Department of Energy and Xenergy Inc. completed a rigorous assessment of the actual impact of the CAC Fundamentals and Advanced technical training programs. Extensive interviews of 200 industrial end-users and compressed air professionals confirmed clear energy efficiency, reliability and commercial benefits of both the Fundamentals and Advanced CAC workshops.

Key findings of the USDOE Evaluation include the following:

Training attendees found the CAC sessions to be both useful and of high quality. High percentages of both end-users and compressed air professionals reported a strong positive impression of the training sessions. According to the study, the CAC training has been very effective in providing high quality technical information to plant managers and technical staff as well as by targeted constituencies on the supply side of the market, which consists of compressed air system equipment distributors and consulting engineers. Moreover, the training sessions were positively rated by the substantial number of government officials, engineering faculty, and utility energy efficiency program operators who attended the CAC trainings.
A very high portion of end-users reported using materials directly from the training in making efficiency improvements to their compressed air systems.
End-users who implemented compressed air system efficiency measures achieved high levels of energy savings.
The CAC training is highly cost-effective for businesses and attendees. At current national industrial electricity rates, the average value of savings achieved by program participants who implemented measures was $7,428. With a typical “Fundamentals” tuition of $299, this results in a simple payback of less than a month.
CAC Training materials are highly useful to compressed air professionals. The majority (85%) of vendor participants have used CAC training workshop materials or information when they evaluate customer compressed air systems. Among this group, 18% of respondents used them in ‘all’ evaluations, and 40% used them in ‘many’ evaluations. A similarly high percentage of vendors (64%) claimed that they have used the CAC workshop materials in diagnosing their customers’ compressed air system operating problems.”

Other Energy Conservation Training Programs

Fan System Optimization and Fan System Qualified Specialist for the U.S. Department of Energy.  
Fan System Optimization End User Training (both 1 and 2 day programs), Fan System Equipment Vendor Training, and Fan System Optimization Expert Training (6 days) for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.  
Superior Energy Performance for the U.S. Department of Energy and Georgia Tech Research Corporation  .
Ventilation Basics, Drainage Basics, Practical Energy Management, and Integrating High Performance for the Energy Center of Wisconsin and Focus on Energy.  
Energy Awareness Program for Arcelor Mittal.  
Steel: An Energy-Intensive Business for Purdue University.  
Pump System Energy Efficiency and Fan System Energy Efficiency for Portland General Electric.  
Pump Systems and Fan and Pump Optimization for Xcel Energy.

 Train the Trainer for Energy Conservation Programs

For two years, I worked with Southern California Edison to provide train-the-trainer programs and to audit and recommend revisions to their key training programs in their Customer Technology Application Center and Agricultural Technology Application Center to incorporate adult learning principles to ensure a quality learning experience for their customers.  

 Train the trainer programs to help subject matter experts facilitate the skill-building learning activities for the National Compressed Air Challenge and for the Superior Energy Performance training programs.

  Technical Trainer’s Toolbox (3- day) for Edison Electric, Madison Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and Gogebic Community College. 
Wisconsin Energy Star Homes Training Consultant training (8- day) for Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corps.
 Training Analysis and Design for Midwest Independent System Operators.  
Presentation and Facilitation Techniques for Pump Systems Matter and for the Energy Center of Wisconsin.  
Best Practices in Adult Energy Education for KEMA, Inc.

testimonials

“(The) curriculum design and master training skills helped the Energy Center of Wisconsin win the 1998 and 2002 Awards of Excellence in Education from the American Institute of Architects, as well as the 2000 Exemplar Award from the International Association of Continuing Education and Training.”

Marge Anderson, Associate Director of the Energy Center of Wisconsin

“I have recently worked with Laurel and Associates, Ltd. on the development and implementation of a full day, eight hour training course. As Technical Director for the Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Homes program, I am involved in the development of several training events. Over the years we have realized through follow up evaluations that the ‘training as usual’ did not appear to change practices in the field. We felt that the limited time we have with the building industry had to be reevaluated in an effort to provide a better ‘learning experience.’ This is where we decided to contact Deb Laurel at Laurel and Associates, Ltd, Madison. Working with the Energy Center of Wisconsin as the coordinator for our training series, we met with Deb Laurel. After doing the ‘training as usual’ for several years I realized after the first 20 minutes or so, that Deb Laurel was the right person to help us coordinate all the technical resources we had and put them into a curriculum that would provide a real learning experience. For years we had assumed that lecturing to a group was the correct way to learning. Soon into our work with Deb Laurel we could see the major flaws with that assumption. She went to work immediately in establishing an outline for collecting the information we wanted taught, and designed a learning experience through interaction and lecture. This process was valuable for me as a trainer as well, as it reminded me of the importance of information being provided in a way that motivates people to action. After all, isn’t this what training is all about? Having done over eight sessions now with the curriculum that Laurel and Associates helped us develop, I can tell you Deb Laurel’s expertise and experience in training delivered a true learning experience. The evaluations for this training series are a testament to the value of her service. Even seasoned trades people commented to me that they learned more in eight hours than they have from twenty years of field experience. These comments are common after our sessions and pretty much speak for themselves.”

Joseph P. Nagan Home Building Technology Services

“It’s my absolute pleasure to recommend the services of Deborah Laurel. Deb has worked with Compressed Air Challenge since its inception in the mid 1990’s. Without her expert training and advice, all our workbooks and training material used today would not have occurred. Deb took the knowledge of many of our engineers and turned it into an amazing training that has been successful ad is still going strong today. Both a fundamentals training and an advanced training were created. In her work with us, Deb took a bunch of engineers who thought they could easily relay technical information and taught has how to teach adult learners. To deliver the material in small doses so the attendees fully understand each lesson. This was not an easy task, yet Deb pulled it off brilliantly. I would absolutely recommend the services of Deborah Laurel to anyone interested in training or curriculum design.”

Frank MoskowitzCCASS at Compressed Air & Gas Institute (CAGI)

In a sea of fly-by-night "content," Deborah Laurel develops and delivers training that builds competencies. And those competencies stick. I hired Deborah to work with a cantankerous set of subject-matter experts - most of whom were competitors of each other - to unify around best practices for energy savings for industrial equipment. The only woman with about 25 men, she wrangled them to consensus while winning their respect. She drew the best from them in terms of their skills - they were so inspired that one night they stayed up half the night in the conference room to complete one of her assignments and make it perfect. Then she translated that subject-matter expertise into competency-building training. And she trained them to become excellent teachers, not just knowledgeable practitioners. That training is still happening years later. An independent evaluator found that it delivered over $80 in energy savings for every dollar spent by the sponsor (Department of Energy.) In Wisconsin, when a program offered training from another source, the industry demanded to bring Deborah's program back because of its effectiveness. Since that roaring success, I've hired Deborah many more times to train technical trainers. A decade after they spent time with her, they're still using her approaches and quoting her. There's so much bad, shallow content out there. Do we really have time to waste on efforts that aren't effective? Deborah Laurel is the real deal - truly transformational for learners and for people who care about teaching.

Marge AndersonSenior Director, Events & Marketing Slipstream, Inc.