How to operate a variety of heavy equipment is the obvious thing you learn while in heavy equipment school. You’ll learn to operate everything from a backhoe to an all-terrain forklift. But that’s not all. There are six other things you’ll learn that will help you throughout your heavy equipment career.

1. Grade Reading – Do you know how to read a grade? It’s very important for a lot of the work you’ll do, from excavation to clearing. You’ll learn how to tell the difference between a 45-degree grade and a 49-degree grade.
2. Laser Levels – Laser levels are construction measuring tools that you’ll see a lot and you should know how to operate them.
3. Soils – Different types of soils are more difficult to move than others. We’ll teach you how to identify the types of soil and how to operate the various equipment in each type of soil.
4. Safety – Heavy equipment safety is one of the most important lessons you’ll ever learn. We give you the full scoop.
5. Site Layouts – Layout management is very important in construction work. You don’t want to create collision courses between your various heavy equipment, so you’ll need to learn a little bit about how to layout a construction site so that your team is more efficient and more safe.
6. Heavy Equipment Maintenance – If you don’t maintain your equipment, it won’t last. We’ll teach you everything you learn and need to know at the operator’s level to keep your equipment operating smoothly for the job.

In heavy equipment school, you learn more than just sitting in a bucket and pulling levers. You learn how to succeed on the construction site.

Training to be a heavy equipment operator is not something you could take lightly. As Baby Boomers begin to retire, more positions for operators will open up. Now is the time to start your equipment training if you want a lucrative career in heavy equipment.

But you should know that there are different types of heavy equipment and, therefore, different types of heavy equipment training.

Here are 4 types of heavy equipment training. Pick the one that is right for you.

1. Heavy equipment – First off, let’s define what we mean by heavy equipment. On the typical job site, you’ll run into these types of big machines — Backhoes, wheel loaders, scrapers, excavators, bulldozers, road graders, dump trucks, skid steers, and forklifts. At Heavy Equipment School, you’ll learn how to operate them all.
2. Mobile crane – Mobile crane operators are a different breed. You’ll learn how to operate fixed and swing cab hydraulic cranes, lattice booms, articulated booms, and get your rigger/signalperson certification.
3. Rigging – If you desire to become a rigger or a signalperson, then you can take training and receive certification just for that career position. Riggers make darn good money and enjoy a long, fulfilling career–especially if they excel at the job.
4. Truck driver – Finally, if you have any desire to be a long haul truck driver or a construction site driver, then you can get your CDL license and be a huge asset to any work crew. No construction site can do without a truck driver, and these positions require special certification so they pay more.

You can start your career as a heavy equipment operator on the right foot with the right training.

In just a couple of days, Associated Training Services will begin a new session of our heavy equipment training. The good news is, you still have time to enroll.

If by any chance, you can’t make the July 13, 2015 class date, we’ll have another one start on Monday, August 3, 2015, and then another one kicks off two weeks later. If you’re even thinking about starting a career as a truck driver or heavy equipment operator, then we’d encourage you to join one of these class dates.

Why Summer is Good for Heavy Equipment Training

The summer months are good for heavy equipment training for two major reasons:

1. You get plenty of classroom time
2. And when you are outside you’ll be working during the hottest months of the year, and if you can do that, the rest of it is a piece of cake

No joke. You get classroom time in a heavy equipment school. That’s because we want to make sure you understand all about the equipment and good safety practices before we turn you loose to operate it. Our instructors are seasoned pros and leave no stone unturned in teaching you everything you need to know to be a good heavy equipment operator.

Plus, if you can operate the equipment in the hottest days of the year, then you can operate it any time.

Don’t Put Off What You Can Do Today

That’s not to say, of course, that winter isn’t a good time for training. If you are ready for a new career, then any time is good for training.

The sooner you start your heavy equipment career, the more money you’ll make in the long run. Why wait? If you’re ready, the best time is now.

There are many things to be selective about when deciding on a training school for something as important as heavy equipment operator skills. It isn’t enough just to be skilled, for instance. Most employers are very particular about things like certification because their insurance company demands it. But as good as a heavy equipment operator training school is, if these four things aren’t part of the Employment Assistance program, you are going to be missing out on a lot of potential career options:

1. Job Leads as long as you need them — ATS offers employment assistance for a lifetime and maintains an extensive database of employers who want to hire ATS graduates. That database is available whenever you need it, and the employment assistance personnel are prepared to help. No worries about relocating because the graduate is the customer here and we work with over 4,000 employers nationwide.
2. Networking Website free for all graduates — the Total Resources Network is a site used by thousands of employers and industry professionals to connect with qualified job seekers. ATS grads can post applications and search for jobs by industry or location with no fees. That means no restrictions of office hours or time zones — you can get off any shift, come home, and job hunt.
3. Career Counseling that really is personal — ATS starts working with students from the first week of training and develops an employment package tailored to the industries and locations the student is interested in. This package includes a list of potential employers and information helping them find that first job. There’s the follow-up, too, to make sure things are going well.
4. Soft Skills Training for the job seeking process — it isn’t enough to have the knowledge and skills to run heavy equipment. You also have to get through networking, application procedures, and interviews. ATS instructors are all experienced as business owners, construction site foremen, and superintendents so they can help students see what employers look for.

It’s always a good idea to get training and receive national credentials when you are hoping to be employed in a skilled trade. But there’s a big difference between the kind of training you’d get in the backfield practicing with the farm’s equipment and the kind of training you will get at a nationally accredited training facility like ATS.

That farm equipment practice is a valuable experience, no doubt about it. You have developed a sense of where you are when operating the big machine and you have learned how to adapt to changing conditions. But you haven’t met any recognized standards of performance and a potential employer will want to know how you measure up to the standards in the industry.

Accreditation Proves You Are Professional

National credentials are accepted by educational institutions, government agencies, and industry professionals as proof you have met certain standards. The two organizations Associated Training Services works with are:

• National Center for Construction Education & Research (NCCER)
• National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO)

Many employers will insist that you have one of these certifications before letting you on the job site because their insurance company tells them it is a good idea. It proves the standard of training has been met. You might be up to that standard simply by having a lifetime of experience, but without the credentials, it is not easy to prove.

The experience you get on the farm or a job site is an important part of what you bring to a potential employer. Taking the time to get additional training at ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School puts legitimacy into your resume by adding the appropriate credentials to prove it.

OK, first, a disclaimer: If the other guys on your work crew also do this, then you’ll be the “best heavy equipment crew around” because all of you invested in the same steps.

Choose The Best School That Is Nationally Recognized

There’s a good reason that schools like ATS are nationally recognized, and it’s because the history of the school and students have a proven track record of excellence. Look for a heavy equipment operator training school that has a good reputation in the industry. Pay attention to what the school offers, too. Nationally recognized schools will have access to employers simply because they are known to be good sources of professional-level operators.

Choose The Best School That Is Accredited

Look at the credentials and affiliations the heavy equipment operator school has. Those credentials and affiliations are proof that high standards have been met in curricula and instructor quality. Being an accredited training school also has financial benefits because a wide variety of education funding sources require accreditation for eligibility. You could qualify for more financial assistance than you realize if the training school you choose is accredited.

Choose To Invest Your Efforts Into Your Training

The best training facility in the world still needs the student to participate in the training, right? Once you have selected a nationally recognized, accredited heavy operator training school and gone through the process of application and financial aid, there’s still a choice to be made.

You can goof off and regret it, or dedicate this time to learning how to be the best heavy equipment operator around.

On February 15, 1854, an engineering marvel was opened: The Horseshoe Curve in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. This piece of railroad track meant that travelers between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh could make the trip entirely by rail in about 15 hours. That was a big improvement from the 4 days of canal & train the trip involved in previous years.

Here are the statistics:

• length of the curve — 2375 feet
• the degree of curvature — 9 degrees; 25 minutes; the central angle is 220 degrees
• elevation of the lower east end — 1594 feet
• elevation of the upper west end — 1716 feet
• total elevation climb — 122 feet
• grade — 1.8% (1.8 foot rise per 100 feet)

And what kind of heavy equipment did they use to do this excavating? Men with hand tools. About 450 workers, many from Ireland, were paid 25 cents per hour and worked 12 hour days to carve out the mountain at Kittanning Point and get the railroad through. That was some serious shovel work for 3 dollars a day.

Today The Job Market Is Different

The maps on the ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School listing recent wage guidelines for skilled operators list 2011 wages going from entry-level $12.85 an hour up to $24.57 an hour for specialty industries.

The job is more complicated than excavating with a shovel alone and the work goes much faster with the machinery doing the excavating. But the skill of the worker still has to be there, and the satisfaction of seeing a permanent benefit from your hard work might be just the same as those guys leaning on their shovels looking at the work they did on Horseshoe Curve.

If you spend any time at all on heavy equipment operator forums, you’ll see someone mention that “you need a bubble in your butt” to be a successful operator of machines like excavators, backhoes, and anything that is used on uneven sites. What are they talking about?

The Ability To Know You Are Level

One of the basic tools in most toolboxes is a level. These essential tools are useful for anything that needs to be accurately level, and before there were apps, these levels used a bubble of air in a colored liquid inside a tube of glass with lines on it. You lined up the bubble with the lines by moving the thing you were leveling. Since the bubble doesn’t actually move because it’s a bubble of air and stays on top of the water, it acts as a focal point to orient things around.

Levels with bubbles are used to park RVs level so the refrigerator runs right, and to make sure concrete is level so the building isn’t crooked. You will see levels with bubbles used in a lot of different industries because it’s a simple, accurate way to ensure leveling perfection. And the bubble in the butt of the heavy equipment operator is the instinctive leveling tool that senses when you are operating on a slope.

Seat-of-the-Pants Training

One of the biggest reasons ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School insists on seat-of-the-pants experience during the training process is that you can’t exactly teach how to sense when the machine is level. It has to be experienced, learning how to sense what is going on around you and safely making mistakes so you can see when you are not level.

The best heavy equipment operations programs provide on-the-seat training with a variety of machinery along with the knowledge to become competent and professional. The “bubble in your butt” is a good thing because it means you have one of the most basic skills needed to do your job.

The question often comes up about types of equipment you’ll be on at ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School. The answer is: lots. We make sure you get familiar with all the machines on this list:

• Backhoes
• Scrapers
• Bulldozers
• Graders
• Skid Steer Loaders
• Wheel Loaders
• Excavators
• Off-Road Haul Trucks
• Front End Loaders
• All-Terrain Forklifts

The reason why we’ve found it’s important to give students lots of exposure to different kinds of machinery is that the same question can be asked about your job once you graduate. Heavy equipment is a big investment so most employers have a wide range of machines in their business.

Your employer might have a skid steer loader or a wheel loader. Maybe even both, from different decades. You might be using a brand new front end loader or a backhoe about to be retired. There’s no real way to know, so the best preparation is learning how to figure out what to do with whatever you are asked to operate.

If you are familiar with the way a lot of different equipment works and have a grasp of essential safety skills, you are in good shape. It helps to know how to identify soils, read grade and site layout, and use a laser level. The bigger your perspective is when you start a job, the easier it is to see why you are important on the work site.

Classes start every three weeks and there’s no waiting list. We set it up like that to fit the real world and real people’s schedules. Take a look at what ATS can help you learn, and you’ll be on the equipment you know how to run.

Sometimes a person who has grown up with experience around heavy equipment or been able to learn how to operate heavy equipment on the job asks why they’d need to go to a place like ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School at all. The question is valid, and the answer is clear:

ATS Training School plus Experience is better than Experience with no Training Certifications.

Employers look for operators who have been certified in accredited programs by professional instructors. Not only does this give them the assurance that there’s no gaps in training, it also satisfies state and federal regulations. You can be an expert at operating a particular type of heavy equipment and lose the job to a recent graduate of a good training school who has the basics. That graduate will very quickly learn on the job, and the legal requirements are satisfied.

So what should you do if you know how to operate all the stuff but lack the credentials that get you hired? Get those credentials at ATS. Classes start every three weeks and run year-round so you can work it into your schedule easily. Your experience will help a great deal because you have a working frame of reference to put all the information into. The instructors can help you get ready for the tests, you ace the tests because you know the stuff, and you graduate with the ATS advantage.

The ATS Advantage is a combination of respected training practices, assurance that your knowledge is current, and career help that continues as long as you need it. Add your experience to ATS and it’s no contest.