CALGARY, Alberta, Canada, Aug. 01, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Danatec Educational Services Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Yardstick Testing and Training, today acquired ESPS Electrical Safety Program Solutions Inc. (www.esps.ca). This acquisition builds on Danatec’s 30+ year history of delivering regulated safety and compliance training across Canada. With the fast growth of the electrical safety industry, this partnership will give Danatec access to a broader customer and reseller base in both Canada and the USA, and an opportunity for the development of new training certification products and a deeper level of sophisticated consulting services and products to a burgeoning section of the safety industry.
ESPS, founded and led by Terry Becker, P.Eng, CESCP has been an industry leader in electrical safety consulting, products and arc flash & shock training solutions since its inception in 2007. Known and respected for bringing passion and commitment to every client engagement, ESPS offers industry- leading electrical safety consulting and a suite of licensed Electrical Safety Program products and training solutions that include both online electrical safety and instructor-led certification training solutions. Together the application of the ESPS processes and systems are used to mitigate worker exposure to electrical hazards or reduce risk and provide the best due diligence for the worker and the employer.
ESPS’s core web-based training product, the Electrical Safety Training System (ESTS), is well known by the electrical safety industry as the #1 option for online electrical safety training certification as it relates to the CSA Z462 and NFPA 70E Standards. The ESTS Electrical Worker 4-hour self-paced online course covers, among other competencies; regulations, consensus based Standards, electrical hazard identification, risk assessment procedure, establishing an electrically safe work condition, application of the hierarchy of controls to reduce risk, electrical specific PPE, tools & equipment, electrical incident reporting, electrical emergency response and includes work task scenarios. The course uses interactive 2D and 3D elements, videos and simulations to deliver core electrical safety learning outcomes. The ESPS suite of online courses will be transferred to Yardstick’s newest technology platforms, RapidLMS.com and LearnerVerified.com.
Alina Martin, President & CEO of Danatec, comments: “Danatec is well-poised to tackle other markets such as the electrical safety industry. This industry has been largely underserviced and traditionally not as heavily regulated as many others over the years. Our acquisition will marry the ESPS subject matter expertise with our deep knowledge of regulated spaces and market-leading product development. Combined with the added quality and defensibility that our partnership with Yardstick has already brought our own online training products, this will be transformational for the industry. Danatec is looking forward to working alongside Terry Becker, P.Eng, CESCP, CEO of ESPS, to bring new training products, new services and a deeper level of defensibility and rigor to this market.”
ESPS founder Terry Becker, P.Eng., CESCP will join Danatec as Sr. Vice President, Electrical Safety Division. “The opportunity to partner with a safety training leader like Danatec was something that we could not pass up. I have long been a proponent of workplace electrical safety Standards and can now grow the consulting services and products ESPS offers, improve service delivery, and reach a larger audience to share industry best practices and training across industry to an international audience.”
For Yardstick and Danatec, this acquisition represents an important step forward in achieving Yardstick’s Big Hairy Audacious Goal to help 1 billion learners achieve competence by 2025. “Our mission,” says Chris LaBossiere, Yardstick CEO, “has always been to facilitate ‘training that matters.’ In regulated industries that affect us all, such as finance, insurance, real estate and safety where public security depends on our ability to know that professionals and trades workers are qualified to serve us, that they have taken and retained the required training and are ready to apply what they’ve learned. By acquiring industry-leading training providers like ESPS and leveraging innovations such as modern, eLearning management system technologies, learner verification and remote proctoring, Yardstick and Danatec will set a new standard for the defensibility of online training.”
About Danatec
Danatec is a subsidiary of Yardstick Testing and Training, a leader in the education and technology sector. Danatec is an award-winning publisher of occupational health & safety training materials. Since 1985, Danatec has offered an expansive range of educational and compliance training tools such as self-teach training programs, online training, handbooks, apps, reference materials, regulations and custom training solutions. Danatec is an industry expert and thought leader, in workplace safety and compliance-based training.
About ESPS
ESPS Electrical Safety Program Solutions Inc. is an engineering consulting services and products company founded in 2007 that provides specialized electrical safety consulting services and products, including: External Electrical Safety Audits, licensed Electrical Safety Programs and related documentation, consulting services for Electrical Safety Program development and implementation, Arc Flash Incident Energy Analysis Studies, and complete training solutions related to Electrical Safety Programs for electrical workers and non- electrical workers.
About Yardstick
As one of Canada’s leaders in psychometrics, computer-based examination administration, online learning, and educational technology, Yardstick draws on the latest developments in computer and web technology to deliver rigorous and creative online testing and training. Yardstick experts build everything with learner and candidate success in mind, partnering with subject matter experts, employers, industry regulators, and training managers to train, certify and verify today’s workforce. Yardstick has been named on Alberta Venture Magazine’s “Fast Growth 50” list, Deloitte’s North American “Technology Fast 500” list, PROFIT Magazine’s “Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies” list, and was recognized as one of Canada’s 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures in 2015.