Using Mike's Basic Electrical Theory book

[drillman]

Greetings, I am a master electrician in Texas. I currently work at a county jail as a building supervisor. We have a number of new hires who have maintenance experience but zero electrical knowledge.

I have been sort of teaching guys one on one while we are out on the job but that is just to time consuming.

I would like to teach a class every week using Mike's basic electrical theory book.

My question is has anyone here used it to teach people who are totally new to electrical stuff? It seems like a good book to me but I would like any other opinions.

One thing I would like to do is make up some labs, probably just using resistors and breadboards.

Thanks for any and all help.

 

[knoppdude]

Hi drillman,
I have only used several of Mike Holts books, and both are well written and illustrated. They are very thorough in their coverage of their subject. Although I can't give you a direct answer, as I have not used his theory books for teaching, I will extrapolate and say that they may be the best available to use. I was taught using Electricity 1-7 by Mileaf, which while flawless in its presentation, is no longer available, and that I did use to train apprentices with. Today, if I had to train electricians, I would go with Holts theory material, his company has managed to continue to edit, and reduce errors, and the books are very well constructed. I hope this helps somewhat in making your decision.

 

[knoppdude]

Also drillman, your plan to use hands on materials will help your students understand the theory better than just reading and doing problems. Sounds like you have a good plan.