Hiring and Training Operators at FNAL Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

       Brian Drendel, Dan Johnson, _Bruce Worthel_
       Fermilab PO Box 500, MS306 Batavia, Illinois 60510


 WAO'98 Poster, Extended Abstract

   Hiring qualified people and turning them into accelerator operators
   is not an easy task.  We need to be confident that whomever we hire
   will stay in Operations for five years.  This period is necessary
   for the group to benefit from the training overhead and to maintain
   the knowledge base for training future operators.  There are
   several stages to our hiring practices, and individually none of
   them single out that special operator, but collectively they
   provide a solid basis for making an offer.

   New employees must learn how to operate five accelerators (Preacc,
   LINAC, Booster, Main Injector, and the Tevatron), and learn how to
   operate in collider and fixed target modes.  This means learning an
   expansive 800 GeV transport system, plus the Antiprotons Debuncher
   and Accumulator storage ring system, and the soon-to-be-commissioned
   Recycler system for recovering pbars.  Further, they have to learn
   how to respond to emergencies, equipment trouble-shooting and
   repair, understand radiation safety, DOE rules and regulations, and
   equipment operations for vacuum, RF, HV, control hardware and
   software, and cryogenic systems.

   Historically, it had taken a new employee four to five years, on
   average, to become a fully qualified operator.  The problem was
   that an operator only stayed in the group for five years before
   moving elsewhere in the lab or quitting.  Due to this, the training
   program has evolved from a self-help study guide to what it is
   today: a two year mentor-driven system of on-the-job-training,
   reading, reference materials, specialist walk-arounds, study
   questions, and official tests.  Our objectives are to train crews
   of competent operators, maintain a systematized method of training
   and progress tracking, compile a library of updated 'Rookie Books'
   and reference materials, and update the program by regular
   evaluation.

   This poster discusses the hiring practices and training processes
   enacted to slow this attrition rate and speed the operator's
   ability to become a contributing member of the Operations
   Department.