Rant: Rigging courses are mostly a waste of money for experienced guys

I sat through a 2 day rigging course last month that cost my company $800. The instructor spent half the time showing us basic knots I learned as a green hand 12 years ago. I get that new operators need the classroom stuff, but for guys who've been running cranes for a decade, it felt like a total cash grab. Anyone else feel like these cert courses are designed for beginners and just punish the rest of us?

2 comments

2 Comments

luna5191mo ago

My buddy Mike from the local union hall got sent to one of those last year. The instructor actually stopped class to try and correct his hand signals even though Mike's been signalman on highrise steel for 8 years. He told me he spent most of day two just staring at the ceiling counting ceiling tiles to stay awake. The kicker was the final test had a question about the proper way to coil a rope that any kid in Boy Scouts could answer. He said the only useful part was the free lunch on the second day.

patriciamoore1mo ago

Hang on, I gotta push back a tiny bit on the rope coiling thing. Honestly, knowing how to coil a rope properly isn't just Boy Scout stuff, it's a legit safety thing on a job site where a bad coil can turn into a nasty tangle or a trip hazard real fast. Ngl, the rest of it sounds like a total waste of time though, especially the hand signal nonsense.