"It takes 5 years to train a power plant operator"

When I heard this from the operations manager of a large coal fired power plant in Thailand I was dumbstruck. He went on talking and my mind headed into outer space. I wondered to myself why training a power plant operator was related to the  earth orbiting the sun, and why it took 5 orbits to do so.  After coming back to planet earth I composed myself and asked the operations manager the obvious question.  He thought then said "well it takes 5 plant shut down/start ups before we consider an operator fully trained." I thought that makes sense. He went on to say, " We only shut down the plants annually."  He had conflated two facts and come up with a policy likely to generate a shortage of operators.

Better solution: Invest in simulator training for his operators.  Simulators are not so dependent on the number of times the earth orbits the sun.  Actually in a month an operator can have many, many more shut down/start up experiences.  In fact it is not duration of time that determines proficiency but rather repetitions that builds skill.