SIMULATING SUCCESS
Nothing can take the place of real-word experience, but at River Bend Career and Technical Center in Bradford, Vermont, they’re realizing that their new John Deere heavy equipment simulators are the next best thing. River Bend is a vocational school mainly targeting high school students. One way that kids get early exposure to the heavy equipment operations program is during their sophomore year when five of the area high schools send students to River Bend to get a hands-on day of exploring the center and checking out the classes and training offered.
Michael Howe is the heavy equipment operations instructor and started his own career path years ago intent on becoming a marine mechanic. He soon found himself recruited as an equipment operator until a back injury had him changing career paths once again. Michael enjoys his position at River Bend and sees it as a way to work in an industry he loves, while also having the ability to give back to the kids. “We are fulfilling a huge demand in Vermont and New Hampshire for heavy equipment operators,” said Howe.
River Bend’s heavy equipment operations and maintenance course offer a fleet of sixteen various construction machines that expose the students to everything they will see on a typical job site. As can be expected, this equipment is very expensive to maintain. In the wintertime, it is just not cost-effective to get the equipment started up and ready to use. Add in the diesel fuel costs, and it just doesn’t make sense. Students use the simulators more in the winter and this helps lower costs. Plus, they are a great way to utilize every minute of instruction time for faster training and quickly filling skills gaps.
The simulators have five software packages for road grading, excavators and dozer set-ups. Howe reports they are working out great. He maintains that they are easy to use for the students who will jump on them and even with just ten minutes to kill, can get valuable training accomplished. “The graphics are great, full-motion, very realistic, and vastly improved over earlier versions,” says Howe. “The skills training is invaluable. For in-stance, I can see a huge difference in a student who has logged several hours on the excavator simulator and how smoothly that translates into how that student operates the actual machine outside. The more seat-time a student has on the simulator or an actual machine, the better off they will be,” says Howe.
The River Bend heavy equipment operations program has an advisory committee made up of several industry-based people, local farms, businesses, and the New Hampshire (NHDOT) and Vermont departments of transportation. River Bend relies on this committee to help steer their programs to best set-up their students for right-out-the-door quality employees. The commit-tee members report they are always in need of skilled employees, as is much of the United States, where it has been reported that there are nearly 450,000 unfilled job positions in the utilities, transportations, and the trades.
Michael would like to encourage more companies to get involved very early with students at their local high schools to inform them of job opportunities. “If they wait till senior year, it’s too late. Companies call me all the time and ask for kids that are ready to go to work. I inform them we have several, but many of these students are very loyal to the community partners and current companies that have already offered them paid internships or co-op jobs. They will stay with that company. These students are just what companies are looking for. They are eager to work with a great work ethic. They have the skills that make high-quality employees,” states Michael.
Michael has had about 100 graduates through his program in the past 6-1/2 years. He is particularly proud of the students that advance on to other opportunities. “One student went from my course and then on to college for two years. He left college to work with the NHDOT. He’s now very successful in excavation and dirt work and found it to be much more lucrative than the degree he was pursuing in college,” said Howe. Another student is just five years out of high school and started out as a general laborer on a highway crew for the NHDOT. Now he’s a skilled operator running a brand-new John Deere motor grader all over the state of New Hampshire. He’s quickly moving through the ranks, and it looks like he will be advancing soon as an NHDOT foreman, running his own crew and maintenance shed. “I have students that oversee operations in some of our state’s quarries or work in operations for large asphalt plants. The opportunities are endless for motivated students and they don’t stop with heavy equipment operation,” said Howe. “Plus, our program emphasizes other core training such as welding, fabricating and equipment maintenance. This sets the kids up for even more skills that they will need to rely on in certain job settings, or another means to make a living in the winter or in the off-season as equipment operators. Students that graduate from the program can also get their commercial driver license or CDL. It is a great back-up for them in the future, even if they don’t want to drive. It’s another good way to continue making money in the winter,” added Howe.
The simulators at River Bend are proving to be a cost-effective way to help meet the demand for skilled employees in the heavy equipment industry. With its rewarding careers, long term opportunities, good pay, and tens of thousands of current job openings, the importance of introducing students very early on to what this industry has to offer will be the real key to success!
For more information, visit: www.rbctc.org