Note: The DICAT course, offered for over 20 years by the Australian Drilling Industry Committee (ADITC), is RECENTLY REVISED with a NEW ASSESSMENT SYSTEM. Each module includes self-test items, activities to help you learn, and Assessment Tasks to return for review. These assessments require the student to assemble and process information and to draw conclusions, apply previous knowledge, calculate --  to THINK about drilling tasks and their application in the real world.

Course content What's in the world's most comprehensive drilling course?

Drilling -- Still the world's newest (1997) and most-comprehensive reference manual  devoted to drilling.

What's this worth to me, anyway? Credit and certification -- Not to mention Value and WORK PROSPECTS.

GEFCO offers a solid hands-on training seminar that uses Drilling as a reference text (course fills quickly).	International School of Well Drilling (new) is now offering online CEU onsite and classroom courses in well topics
Related information on well maintenance, well rehabilitation and microbiology of wells	Who is the ADITC?  What else do we do?

OK, how do you get that training to become that professional driller? If you're an employer, how do you find, motivate and keep these people?

• Drilling has traditionally been learned through experience with "old hands". But not every old hand is a good teacher (to say the least...), and the methods and requirements are more complex than they used to be. Training a "greenhand" can be expensive in lost productivity, even damage.
• School training in drilling is difficult to come by. Only a few technical schools had the vision to see the market to support the equipment and staff needed to provide adequate drilling training. We know of three hands-on water well or drilling programs now still operating in North America: one in Mississippi (Southwest Mississippi Community College), and two in Canada: Sir Sandford Fleming College in Ontario and Red Deer College in Alberta (Alberta Apprenticeship programme with Alberta Water Well Assn.). We're sure these all do a fine job training new well technicians and professional drillers.
  

Then - We may have something for you: Smith-Comeskey Ground Water Science (Ground Water Science) offers the unique and useful Australian Drilling Industry Training Committee (ADITC) DICAT Course in drilling. DICAT is an external study program that offers you the opportunity to gain industry-recognized qualifications at your own time and pace - and where you are.

• This doesn't mean the course makes you a driller without practice - it doesn't.
• It DOES gives you the opportunity to gain technical knowledge you may not gain otherwise, even drilling all the time.

• Your employers and customers gain a more knowledgeable and disciplined drilling professional.
• The DICAT training system works with you as you work at drilling.
• You work at your own pace. Your training continues while you work. You apply what you know on the job.

The DICAT course itself is newly updated and consists of 13 modules with worksheet sets and driller's log book to enhance and complement your text reading. Lessons center around project scenarios requiring the participant to take on the role of a drilling contractor, supervisor, or project geologist.
 

Whats in a Module?

It contains...	To...
List of contents	provide you with a layout of the module.
Learning outcomes	explain what you will be able to do at the end of the module.
Test yourself questions	help you learn. You can write the answers, do them in your head, or discuss them with a mentor, friend or supervisor.
Activities	help you learn. These are to be completed as they include practice tasks.
Test yourself answers	give you immediate feedback on your answers.
Progress checklist	allow you to gauge your own progress.
Topic review	give you an overview of the material you have covered.
Assessment tasks to be returned	allow your instructor to gauge how successfully you have completed the module.

The student has to think through a task such as planning a drilling program for a variety of drilling applications: geotechnical, water well, etc. The log book included is used to record your practical experience and accomplishments. This log book becomes a handy resume of your training and experience.

The DICAT program is interactive - You are taught, graded, and coached personally by an ADITC professional instructor who is both trainer and professional driller. Each new package from ADITC includes your corrected lesson and a new lesson. The course package also includes a "Guide to Mentoring" and a "Study Guide" to help you make the most of the distance learning experience in drilling.return to top

What do you compare this to? Well, like we just said --- the DICAT course is like nothing here in North America short of enrolling in technical school. DICAT was developed by the ADITC (other contact references below) as the Australian Labour Ministry's National Training Authority's (ANTA) officially-recognized training program in the drilling industry, starting in 1981. The New Zealand government also officially recognizes this course.

Drilling is a highly critical business in Australia, which relies heavily on resource development and well drilling. Australia simply would not be the modern nation it is today -- and in places, society more complicated than Aboriginal bands would be impossible -- without drilling (nothing against a way of life that has worked well for 50,000 years, of course...)

To give you an idea of its scope:

• It has been assessed to be worth over 15 % of an entire undergraduate degree by the Macquarie University, Australia. Their Dept. of Earth & Planetary Sciences page.
• It is comparable to one year of classroom work in drilling technology at a technical college.
• They take technical training very seriously in Australia and categorize training using AQF Competency Standards. Finishing the DICAT course (13 modules) is equivalent to AQF 4 (Senior Driller, complicated projects).
• The New South Wales Dept. of Training and Education Coordination has equated the DICAT course to 300 hr (= 30 CEU) of study. Virginia Hilliard, Exec. Director of ADITC (info@aditc.com.au) can advise you further about the above information.
• In the U.S. and Canada, for example, the certificate would count as continuing education credit or qualifying credit for state/provincial or industry/professional certification. At the present time, it counts for 13 continuing education credit points for NGWA certification (We think this is underrated). The old NWWA correspondence course you could do in a week were rated 1 point = 1 lesson.). We are seeking experience credit for it as well for certification qualification.

Ground Water Science and ADITC will be glad to help you in seeking academic credit or verifying your learning experience with the certification committee, authority, or employer.

This course is far more ambitious than other comparable industry correspondence courses, and most comparable to graduate-level distance learning geology courses such as IRIS as IRIS. Like the other courses, you can step away from your lesson and apply your new knowledge right on the job.

If you enroll in DICAT, what are you committing yourself to? ADITC says that past students have taken 8 to 30 months to complete the lessons (12 months is the average for working people). You work at your own pace, on your own schedule, without pressure. You only fail if you quit.

The course requires thinking, not just reading for answers. Your ADITC instructor is ready to answer your questions and to help you over rough spots. You can converse by e-mail, letter, telephone, or fax. We find e-mail and fax handy since the Australian work day is opposite ours here in the U.S. Eastern time zone, but if you study in the evening in most of North America, it's morning in the Sydney area. return to top

ORDERING AND PAYMENT

Good Buy: Individual Option 1: Total payment upfront for 13 modules including postage (save almost $200 US over option 3). Costs include Drilling textbook, worksheets and questionnaires, logbook, materials folder and all postage to and from Australia -- not to mention that driller-instructor time and interaction ("priceless...").

North America (and the world): Modules 1-13 prepaid $1,250.00 US

BEST BUY: Individual Option 2: If you already have the ADM or Drilling or want to order Drilling  directly from the publisher (Order no. L1242, U.S. list price about US$89.95, cheaper from NGWA if you are a member) -- Order just the course materials (Save a few $ over Option 1):

CRC Press Lewis Publishers
Tel: Continental U.S.: 1-800-272-7737
Tel: Florida and outside continental U.S.: 1-561-994-0555

Modules 1-13 prepaid $ 1100.00 US
This is your best buy in the U.S. but check on the book price for elsewhere (Option 1 may be best).

Most Painless Buy: Individual Option 3: Payment per-module (North America prices, contact ADITC about elsewhere):

Module 1 (includes text, logbook, folder and initial lesson worksheets) $ 280.00 US
Order just course materials and text directly from publisher (see above) $ 190.00 US

Module 2-13 (each) $ 135.00 US

To enroll in the DICAT course in the Western Hemisphere, please ask for an order form and return it to us. U.S. dollars gladly accepted (check or M.O.). Other currency? We suggest using a credit card.
Invoicing: Accepted for institutional orders and others on approval. Please inquire.
Credit cards: We gladly accept MasterCard and VISA. Recommended for AK/HI/outside USA. Write data on the order form and fax it to us.
Wire transfer: Please inquire. Add $20 to the total amount of your order or enrollment for the bank fee (sorry). We apologize for the parochial nature of USA banks.

• A 3-day environmental drilling short course (if you can find one) costs $1000 and up plus your travel and per diem.
• You will pay close to the full DICAT enrollment cost just for 40-hr OSHA training (we all know how valuable that is, of course).
• It might be an unfair comparison for schools (that have facilities and overhead), but if you were paying tuition for credits at the rate you pay for DICAT at 17 % of a BS degree, you would wrap up a BS degree for less than $6,300. Have you priced college or technical school lately?
• You land that good job or win one contract because of what you learned in this course (you put value on that)...

Smith-Comeskey Ground Water Science, Upper Sandusky, OH 43351-1331 USA
Agent for North, Central and South America
tel: 1-(419)209-0298 fax: 1-(419)209-0336(or email Stu Smith <stusmith@udata.com>)

Australian Drilling Industry Training Committee Ltd
At this web site, they will tell you all about themselves. Mail address: P.O. Box 742, Lane Cove NSW 2066, Australia. Voice: +61-2-9428 3444, Fax: +61-2-94283555
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Review: Booknews, Inc. , 1999 (from Amazon.com)
"A comprehensive reference on the technique used most by hydrologists, environmental engineers, and scientists interested in subsurface conditions. The topics include the drilling industry, fundamentals, geography, machinery, methods, applications, management, safety issues, circulation fluids and grouting, sampling, tests and measurements, recording and reporting, and overcoming down-hole problems. Earlier editions (no dates mentioned) [1981, 1985, 1992] were called the Australian Drilling Manual and this latest is not only updated and renamed, but also revised to be comprehensible to Up Over English [in contrast to Down Under] speakers." Editor's note: the 1992 edition was also edited to be "Yank friendly."

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Note about other schools and programs: Information and links provided here are intended to help the visitor in making comparisons among options. No endorsement is offered or implied. If information is incorrect or misrepresented here or by others, please let us know. The curricula, governance, standards, rules, and faculty of the programs mentioned are entirely their responsibility. Please contact those institutions for information. Please use your 'back' button to go back where you were.

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