RedVector

RedVector is an online continuing education and training catalog for licensed professionals and safety-regulated workers. Its home page calls it "a Vector Solutions brand" and "the leading provider of online education and training for a wide range of industries including architecture, engineering, construction, industrial, facilities management and IT and security." It is a learner product first: an engineer who needs professional development hours, a contractor keeping a state license current or a worker who needs OSHA or HAZWOPER training finds the course for that requirement, buys it individually or through a subscription, and takes it as video. Employers can also buy training for their teams. RedVector says it has served its community since 1999, and the footer gives an address on West Kennedy Blvd in Tampa, Florida.

Who the catalog is for

The Find Your Training menu lists the professions RedVector builds courses for: architects, building inspectors, contractors, corrugated manufacturing, engineers, facilities maintenance, health and safety (HSE), home inspectors, industrial maintenance, interior designers, IT and cybersecurity, land surveyors, landscape architects, LEED AP holders, miners under MSHA Part 46, OSHA, plumbers, project management, and pulp, paper and tissue.

That spread covers two kinds of learner. One is the licensed professional who needs continuing education hours each renewal cycle; the engineering section, for instance, is titled "Online PDH & Continuing Education (CE) Courses for Engineers." The other is the construction, plant or mine worker who needs compliance training to work on site.

The home page has a search that starts from the license: the learner picks a profession and a state, then clicks Find My Training. The trending licenses it lists show where demand sits: Texas engineers, Florida contractors, Ohio engineers, Texas land surveyors and North Carolina engineers. A License Requirements resource sits next to the course catalog for anyone checking what their board asks for.

Safety training

The courses the home page calls best-selling are safety training, in three families:

• HAZWOPER. The site says these courses "meet the OSHA 29 CFR 1910.120 regulation" and are designed for workers who may be exposed to hazardous substances, with 40-hour or 24-hour initial training and an 8-hour annual refresher.
• OSHA. RedVector describes this as "OSHA-authorized training", offered as OSHA 10 Construction, OSHA 10 General Industry and OSHA 30 Construction, so that workers understand safety processes and hazards before entering a worksite.
• MSHA Part 46. The site calls these courses award-winning and offers 24-Hour New Miner and 8-Hour Annual Refresher training, with training materials and compliance templates designed to meet MSHA requirements.

For an employer these courses settle a regulatory requirement, and for a worker they are often what stands between them and a job site, so the clear split between initial and refresher training is the useful detail here.

Continuing education for licenses

For licensed professionals the heading is "Renew Your License With Accredited CE Courses." The home page says RedVector's video courses are regularly updated with new content and include tools to manage 100+ licenses and certifications within the commercial sector, and that its training "has earned us numerous industry awards." The footer opens a list headed "Some of our Accreditations", and the site's tagline is "Accredited Video Training", available anytime, anywhere, on any device. Individual courses and live webinars are both listed under the training for individuals, so a professional can mix on-demand video with scheduled sessions.

The individual sections mirror the license types: engineer, contractors, architect, land surveyor, landscape architect, building inspectors, OSHA and safety, project manager, LEED and interior designer.

The learning experience

Courses are video-based. The home page says the course player lets learners switch between devices, choose from 40+ languages and measure their progress with self-check quizzes, among other features. That suits someone who starts a course at a desk and finishes it on a phone, or a crew whose members do not all train in English. A monthly newsletter, which RedVector describes as "short, sweet, and to the point", brings the latest news to subscribers.

Customer quotes on the home page show how people use it. Michael Marchica, listed as a RedVector customer, says he has taken the Florida Certified Contractor courses for years and finds the content relevant and engaging, adding that "they made it easy for me to maintain my license." Daniel Alexander of ORMAT Technologies says the catalog "can work for people that work in the office, electricians, mechanics, and they have pretty much something for everyone." Kenneth Keith, Industrial Maintenance Operations Program Faculty at Northland Pioneer College, recommends RedVector on "ease of use, deliverability, and the course content."

Pricing and subscriptions

The site publishes no prices on its home or engineering pages; courses and subscriptions are bought through the catalog, and sales enquiries go to 800-453-0897. RedVector steers learners toward subscriptions, which it says give full access to its content and are "the most cost-effective solution", so that a subscriber can renew a license and take additional training along the way. The resources menu also links a Risk Free Guarantee, and support and sign-in sit in the header.

Training for teams

Employers have their own route. Training For Your Team and Corporate Solutions lead to a form, and RedVector says it will be in touch with expert solutions. The footer describes the technology behind that offer as a learning management system, incident tracking software, license and credential management tools and competency assessments. For a company that needs to put a crew through OSHA 10, run annual HAZWOPER refreshers or keep a team of engineers licensed in several states, that turns RedVector from a course catalog into a training program the employer can manage.

Who it suits

RedVector suits licensed professionals in the built environment, such as engineers, architects, contractors, land surveyors, landscape architects, interior designers and building or home inspectors, who need accredited CE hours for a particular state and want to take them as video on their own schedule. It suits construction, industrial and mining employers who need OSHA 10 or 30, HAZWOPER or MSHA Part 46 training across a workforce, and holders of several licenses who want one catalog with license management tools.

It suits less well someone who wants to compare prices before signing in, since the public pages show none, or a learner after general skills courses outside licensing and compliance.