All of our on-site courses are instructed by the principals of The Nielsen Environmental Field School, David M. Nielsen and Gillian L. Nielsen. Combined, they have more than 6 decades of practical field and training experience. They are seasoned professionals who have been in the forefront of environmental education for more than 30 years each and they have taught thousands of environmental professionals around the world over their careers. You can be confident that your instructors know their subject matter inside and out, and they know how to convey it to your staff in the most effective manner possible.

David and Gillian have earned many prestigious awards within the environmental industry for their work in the area of technical standards development, significant editorial contributions to professional peer-reviewed journals, and contributions to the ground-water industry. In addition, they have authored a number of technical papers and top-selling books on subjects including environmental site characterization, ground-water monitoring, ground-water sampling and environmental applications of drilling and direct-push technology.

On occasion, our clients will select a topic of interest that is outside of the personal expertise of our principal instructors. In rare situations like these, we can call in outside expertise from a pool of recognized experts in their field that we use as support instructors.

On-site courses can be either classroom only, field-based only, or a combination of classroom and field training, the most popular option. The option you select depends on what you want to emphasize - basic scientific concepts, proper field practices, or both. Keep in mind that it is difficult to learn proper field methods through classroom exercises only. In our experience, it is essential to involve people in using the equipment and techniques that they learn about in the classroom. We continually hear confirmation from our students that interactive, hands-on training under real-world conditions provides them with the most lasting educational experience.

On-site courses can range from 1 to 5 days in length, and can be held during the week or over the weekend. We've even done 4 week-long courses over several months time for one of our regulatory agency clients. If you are unsure about course length, we can make a recommendation based on the subjects you want to cover, the level of detail you desire, and the amount of time you'd like to spend in the field. For example, on the subject of ground-water sampling, we can construct a curriculum from 1 to 4 days with from 1 to 3 field sessions, depending on the depth of coverage you need.

For field sessions, we can either train your staff on proper operation of equipment you own or use, or we can supply the equipment, a popular option for those who want to evaluate new or different equipment without having to purchase it first. We are familiar with most major brands of field equipment and we maintain a large inventory of state-of-the-art equipment, from pumps and grab samplers to field analytical instruments and test kits. For our International clients, rather than ship equipment from New Mexico to your location, we make every attempt to identify and work with equipment suppliers local to you. It makes sense to learn about the equipment available to you and it helps us keep course budgets in check by minimizing costly equipment shipping and customs charges.

If you have a group of 10 or more staff to train, on-site training can easily be cost effective, but we have developed and instructed on-site courses for groups as small as 2 and as large as 100! Here are some of the creative ways that our clients have built on-site training into their programs:

• Incorporate it into annual corporate meetings as a technical refresher session
• Satisfy the problem of training staff when out-of-state travel budgets are restricted
• Bring in unbiased outside experts to work with staff to resolve project-specific issues
• Provide guidance on adopting and using new field protocols to ensure consistency, as well as accuracy and precision in field data
• Ensure standardization of field practices and procedures for in-house field staff and field personnel contracted to perform field work

Ask yourself if you have the following:

• A need to update the technical knowledge of your staff
• A desire to stay competitive in the marketplace
• A need for multiple staff to earn CEUs to maintain their professional registrations
• If you have even one of these needs, then on-site training may be right for your staff!

Cost SavingS!

On-site training can save you from 30% to 70% over conventional open-enrollment training. You pay one lump sum fee for up to 20 people (for a nominal cost, we can accommodate more if your group is larger). You don't pay staff travel costs or per-person registration fees, so you can train more people for less money. The actual amount saved depends on the length of the course and the number of people attending. Savings are greatest for multiple-day courses with higher attendance. The cost of each on-site course includes: course development; instructor labor and expenses; development of any client-specific instructional materials; use of our field equipment as selected by you; and training materials that include highly refined PowerPoint presentations, superior quality course notebooks, weatherproof field notebooks and field reference materials. After we run the numbers for you, you will agree that on-site training is very cost-effective!

Let's Do the Math...

First, consider how much it costs to send one of your staff to a typical 2-day open-enrollment course. The average per-person cost is about $1,950.00 which includes registration fees, airfare, hotel, rental car and gas, per diem, parking, tolls, and miscellaneous expenses. The cost to send one staff member to a 4-day course is over $3500.00. To send 10 staff, multiply that by 10; your cost to train 10 staff for 2 days is $19,500.00; for 4 days, $35,000.00 - Ouch!

Because each client's needs, location and other factors are different, each cost quote we provide for an on-site course is course-specific but, in nearly every case, our clients save from 30% to 70% versus sending multiple staff to a remote location for training. The cost for a typical Nielsen Environmental Field School on-site training course will vary with the length of the course, the subject matter (whether we can use existing materials or have to develop new materials), the number of staff you have to train, where the course will be held (relative to our base in Las Cruces, NM) and the time of year you would like us to teach the course. To obtain an accurate quote for the course you want, just contact us with your needs.

How Will On-Site Training Save My Company Money?
By bringing The Nielsen Environmental Field School to your office and field site, you can realize significant cost savings in the following areas:

No staff travel costs that can really add up:

• Airfare
• Ground transportation
• Hotel room
• Meals
• Parking, tolls, telephone, rental car and rental car gas
• Miscellaneous expenses

More efficient use of employee time:

• No costs associated with travel time
• No overtime associated with longer work days during training
• No weekend travel time costs
• No distractions during training associated with calling back to the office throughout the day

Convenience

We come to you! No longer do you have to worry about the hassles of traveling to a remote location for training! You can schedule training when you need it at a location convenient to you. Your staff won't lose valuable time traveling to a remote location at an inconvenient time that doesn't fit into your work schedule. We can even teach classes over a weekend to avoid losses of billable time on the job - a feature that many of our clients appreciate having as an option. The schedule can be designed to fit into the constraints of your standard work day to avoid employer expenses of worker overtime if necessary.

CUSTOMIZATION

One of the greatest advantages of on-site training is that we will work with you to develop a customized course that meets your specific training needs. You select the subject matter and we assist in developing a curriculum that meets your objectives. You are not limited to "off-the-shelf" presentations. If you choose to provide us with your SOPs during the course development stage, we can address your specific practices and procedures throughout the course, thereby ensuring relevance of the entire course to everyone in your group. Because the course is held in the privacy of your facility, candid discussions of procedures and issues of concern are encouraged. Of course, all client-specific SOPs and in-course discussions are considered to be strictly confidential by Nielsen Environmental Field School staff. Many clients have specific topics of interest and time can be proportioned accordingly. On-site classes can contain either classroom sessions only or a mixture of classroom and field sessions - you decide! Our goal is to ensure that everyone will learn things that they can use immediately on the job whether they are field technicians, environmental scientists, compliance specialists, project managers, supervisors, or other staff.

If you'd rather simplify the planning process and go with one of the courses we have already assembled, you can simply choose from any of the following courses (click on the course name for additional information on each course):

The Complete Ground-Water Monitoring Field Course (5 days)

The Environmental Sampling Field Course (4 days)

The Complete Ground-Water Sampling Field Course (2 1/2 days)

The Complete Surface-Water and Sediment Sampling Field Course (2 days)

The Complete Soil Sampling Field Course (2 1/2 days)

The Complete Ground-Water Monitoring Well Design, Construction and Development Field Course (2 1/2 days)

The Low-Flow Purging and Sampling and No-Purge Sampling Field Course (1 day)

Soil Sampling for Volatile Organic Compounds Using US EPA Method 5035 (1 day)