The major objective of the Structured Knowledge Transfer (SKT) program is to enable engineers to develop skill sets through observation and participation in solving day-to-day wireless network engineering issues and operations, and by so doing, acquire the requisite knowledge that enables them to perform any assigned engineering task in that area. As opposed to classroom instruction, the SKT
program will build in them the confidence and capability in solving network engineering and performance problems cost-effectively. SKT is a program within LCC's Wireless Institute (WI-LCC) education series that combines a strong academic base and many years of accumulated experience garnered from designing, planning and operating wireless networks on a global scale. Years of experience and innovation have developed into a full fledged best practice, the processes of which have become the blue prints for various courses and training materials within the WI-LCC curriculum.
The SKT program involves mentoring through guided experience transfer, implemented as on-the-job training (OJT), with some back up materials that provide additional information for those who don’t have a strong technical base on the subject matter. It is at best a practical process of imparting a packet of knowledge or set of skills from a single, or group of experts, to a group of trainees to enable them perform their assigned tasks effectively and cost efficiently.
In this particular program, the process is implemented by the LCC Network Operations Group under the guidance of WI-LCC. The program entails having a client present the desired area of expertise that they wish to have their engineers trained on, upon which WI-LCC and LCC Ops will deploy lead engineers or experts to work side by side with the client field engineers towards implementing LCC’s best practices, and by so doing, impart the knowledge directly to the client engineers in a more practical hands-on setting.
There are several benefits to the SKT program as compared to classroom instruction. First, the engineers are directly mentored on how to tackle engineering tasks in a logical fashion, taking it from problem identification, understanding the impact of the problem to the successful operation of the network, determining what tools and solution to employ and finally implementing the solution as well as measuring the impact of the changes to the network condition. The second major benefit is that the clients get to have issues resolved on the go while their engineers adapt to the process and learn from it, such that a lasting understanding of the techniques is achieved. The final benefit comes from the uniqueness of the program since it is customized to the clients’ network engineering issues, it is cost effective and directed towards problem resolution which will lead to the development of yet another guideline that can be leveraged in future employee training.
