I think the OJT training is okay depending on the circumstances.  I work for
a large government lab and if we didn't train our own histotechs we would
never have enough workers.  We set up classroom time for 3 months followed
by hands-on in the lab.  We always encourage and support our techs to get
their certification and occasionally we lose them after investing time and
money.  When I started my training I was a young mother(19) and wanted an
education, but I was not able to afford it at the time.  My job has
encouraged me and paid for me to further my education and now I am a
Research Associate and my main responsibility is training of our new
technicians.  I will agree that some don't understand the theory, but there
are those of us who do and we don't want to be ruled out because we were
trained on the job.  Sorry this is so lenghty.
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	atbrooks [SMTP:atbrooks@snet.net]
> Sent:	Wednesday, October 27, 1999 7:46 PM
> To:	histonet
> Subject:	job training ...last resort
>
>     I meant no offense with my statements about hiring unregistered
> techs to save money it was merely intended to illustrate where this
> trend could lead.
>     I feel very strongly that on the job training should be held off as
> an ultimate last resort. We are after all dealing with peoples lives. I
> would want the very best care for my own biopsies, and assume the same
> for everyone else.
>     It should also be said that a few of the best techs I have met  were
> trained on the job. They eventually saw the usefulness of the
> educational background and fulfilled this in time. But they agree they
> received result oriented training, rather than quality oriented job
> training.
>