I suppose it really depends on what you need to train your crew for. There are certain things that I expect people to know when they
walk in the door, but I am hiring people who have some kind of experience (though it may not be much). Of course I am also willing to hare people who are interested in learning but don't really know anything yet. So there are really two ways to go about teaching a crew, do you need to start from the very beginning or do you just need to teach how things work at your
venue?
For every new person I bring in I start with a facility tour.
Point out all the areas we work, where the tools are, what we
call different rooms/areas. Always
point out my office and the main office and the restrooms. Since I deal mainly in lighting, we focus on what is pertinent to that.
I am a firm believer in learning by doing and lots of hands on work. I won't sit down with people and "teach a class," because there is so much to
cover, time i limited, and many people end up learning better by really just getting down and dirty. For the totally green crew people I will teach things like how to hang a light, how to change a lamp, what all the knobs on a light do.
The big thing in training crew is that you need to train them to be safe!
I would rather that someone dumped a source 4 out of a
cove than dump them selves out of the
cove. I always tell ever new crew person that if they ever feel uncomfortable doing something then they should stop and say so. I want my crews to be safe and to feel safe.
Gear is replaceable, lives are not.
I also orient people with how we do things here. So I teach what our cable and
lens color codes are, and things like that, which are unique to our
venue. After that I teach as we go, when a new crewton needs to know how to run the fly
system I teach them that, when they need to know how to
throw weight I teach that. This allows me to teach and get the job done as opposed to taking extra time to teach. I don't need to be throwing weight or pulling up
drop boxes any extra times...
Now, I would take a very different approach if I were teaching people how to work in the scene shop. In the shop there are sooooo many tools that people think they know how to just
walk up to and use that it really warrants a full training session. I would take my crew through each of the common tools, make sure they understand how to use each one safely. This includes things like screw guns and hammers all they way up to bench tools. I wouldn't teach my crew how to use a
lathe on the first day because chances are they don't need to know that. Tools like the radial arm saw and table saw are a must. I also wouldn't let any new crew use any tools without seeing with my own eyes that they can operate them safely.
Of course I am not going to drag a seasoned technician through all that, but I would still check with them to make sure that their
safety standards are at least as good as mine. I would also keep an eye on them for the first few days.
Hope that helps some.