There are a lot of ways an excavator operator can get into trouble and make mistakes. Some of them are dangerous, like undercutting your machine when digging a trench, or working on a slope the wrong way. Others are really kind of funny, like Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. In this classic children’s book, the challenge to do the work in a day leads to forgetting they’d need a ramp to get out of the construction pit they just dug.

It Starts With A Plan

Part of the reason Mike Mulligan is a sympathetic character is because we all forget to plan sometimes. In Mike’s case, he was in a hurry to get the job done so he missed a step because he was looking at the goal. Who hasn’t done this? It’s very easy to be so focused on digging the trench or the pit that you realize you are stuck only when it happens.

An experienced excavator will look over the job and visualize all the potential hangups before beginning to dig. Mike was experienced, but he was in a hurry so he ignored his experience. In real life, Mike probably would have been able to figure out how to get his steam shovel Mary Anne out of the predicament he’d put her in. Real life experience learns how to deal with mistakes.

Training Prevents Mistakes

Before planning a particular job it’s a good idea to get the best heavy equipment operator training so you learn from your instructors’ mistakes. Carefully collecting the training and certifications you need to be a professional excavator prepares you for any job. It may not be as amusing as Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne in their predicament, but it will be a lot more rewarding to avoid as many mistakes as possible.

There’s a good reason why Associated Training Services deliberately gets our students on several different kinds of heavy equipment during training. We’ve seen that your ability to operate one kind of big machine doesn’t necessarily mean you can jump on another and know how to use it safely.

Since most heavy equipment operators will be on a job with several types of equipment, there’s always a chance you could be asked to run something you don’t usually operate. If you have at least been exposed to it during training, you’ll have a better idea of how to do it. During training, you’ll be on many different machines:

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

Each one has a different function and operates with slightly different controls because of that function. This isn’t like going from a sedan to an SUV, and the stakes are much higher. The more familiar you are with different machinery, the more valuable you are as an employee because you can be trusted with incredibly expensive equipment.

There’s another reason why we expose students to different types of heavy equipment during training; you get an idea of what you like and don’t like to run. If you know for sure that you love using a backhoe but hate using a forklift, that’s good to know before applying for a job that requires you to be the main forklift operator.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School has been putting people and machines together successfully for a long time — all kinds of people, and all kinds of heavy equipment.

This week’s job listings cover some different areas of the country: the heights of the Rocky Mountains and the wide prairies of Oklahoma, and more. One of the great things about being a well-trained heavy equipment operator from a certified school like ATS is the lifetime nationwide employment assistance that gives you the foundation for working in many different locations. It’s an adventure!

Berthoud, CO — hiring crane operators

Adams, WI — hiring local truck drivers

Milwaukee, WI — hiring class-a CDL truck drivers

Broken Arrow, OK — hiring heavy equipment operators

Middlebury, VT — hiring heavy equipment operators

Palmer, AK — hiring crane operators

Menomonie Falls, WI — hiring local delivery drivers

Cary, NC — hiring dozer, excavator and pan operators

You will find opportunities like these every day on the Total Resources Network website. Being a graduate of ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School gives you access to a lot of job opportunities, and it’s up to you to choose the best situation for you and your family.

Whether you need to relocate for family reasons or just want to see what another part of the country is like, these two resources are the first place to look for positions. You will find that we have knowledge of employment opportunities because of our reputation for training excellent professionals. Take advantage of the ATS advantage and find a job today.

When you are trying to figure out where to get training, it’s a good idea to look at the philosophy, experience, and goals that the school offers. Associated Training Services has a clear explanation of those very things called “The ATS Advantage,” and there are good reasons why this advantage is valuable.

Philosophy Explains Why ATS Exists

Quality, Integrity, and Pride were the keywords chosen as our motto over twenty years ago by company president John Klabacka. Each one of these words holds a meaning that expands beyond the letters to the idea behind them.

Quality is the high standard of excellence in every aspect of ATS, from the equipment and instructors to the services and facilities. We choose the best in order to train the best.

Integrity is the honest, strong moral character that is the foundation for choices made at ATS. We choose to act with integrity both professionally and personally because we know how essential integrity is to success.

Pride is the result of doing a good job. Being responsible for behavior, putting effort into improvement, and seeing things change is the source of our pride.

Experience Explains How ATS Got Where We Are

The National Center for Construction Education & Research (NCCER) develops and publishes standardized construction and maintenance curricula, safety programs, management education, and more. The NCCER certification is the gold standard for employees in the industry — and ATS is recognized as a participating organization in the curriculum textbooks published by NCCER.

We’ve been doing this long enough to work through the rough spots and create a complete package of housing, financing, and training that doesn’t stop at graduation because we also offer lifetime employment assistance to graduates.

Value ATS and Where It’s Going

Our students are also our customers, and the primary goal of ATS is to produce satisfied customers. With the offer of lifetime employment assistance, you know that we are looking at the long haul. Since we are going for the long term goal of safe, high quality, enjoyable learning experiences that result in lifetime careers, we regularly evaluate the job we are doing to make sure we are on the right route.

One of the highest paid categories of heavy equipment operation is the crane operator, and a rigger is an essential partner in the operator’s mission. Because this is such an important job on a site, most states and insurance companies will require certifications for both positions. ATS is fully qualified to provide the training programs and certifications you need to hold both of these key spots on a work crew.

Our program can prepare and test you on both written and practical NCCCO exams; the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators and the recognized gold standard in the field. You can get experience operating swing and fixed cab, lattice and articulated boom mobile hydraulic cranes along with a good foundation in the safety regulations.

Choose The Programs You Need

There are five different types of NCCCO training offered at ATS:

• Mobile Crane Operations 1 — beginning level
• Mobile Crane Operations 2 — secondary level
• NCCCO Mobile Crane Operator Prep/Test — only for experienced operators & offered through a business
• NCCCO Rigger/Signalperson Certification — a vital position for the safety of everyone
• Specialized Crane Operator Programs — we work with you to provide the specific training needed

Every one of these programs has had hundreds of graduates over the years, and those graduates have gone on to provide valuable service by expertly performing their job. Employers trust the training that you get at ATS and the proof of your competence in passing the NCCCO exams means you are a valued employee.

If you are interested in becoming a mobile crane operator or rigger/signalperson, the most important thing on your resume is an NCCCO certification because it verifies your professional status.

This week there are a lot of job listings all over the country, and many of them are CDL drivers. Did you know when you come to ATS for training as a heavy equipment operator that it only takes two to four more weeks to get your CDL training, as well? That simple investment puts you in the enviable position of being able to do a lot more on the job site and you will usually get the job at a higher wage. This is because you are more valuable to your employer. The return on your investment is pretty high, and many heavy equipment operators will also get their CDL for that reason.

Here are a few of the jobs available:

Amherst, WI. H.O. WOLDING hiring CDL drivers.

Mentor, OH. hiring boom truck operators.

Baraboo, WI. hiring dump truck drivers.

Janesville, WI. hiring CDL truck drivers.

Tulsa, OK. hiring heavy equipment operators.

Elbert, CO. hiring heavy equipment operators.

Sauk City, WI. hiring CDL truck drivers.

Neenah, WI. hiring CDL truck drivers

Fond Du Lac, WI. hiring CDL truck drivers

Wasilla, AK. hiring heavy equipment operators.

Green Bay, WI. hiring CDL truck drivers

Madison WI. hiring CDL truck drivers

Traverse City, MI. hiring heavy equipment operators and crane operators.

Hernando, FL. hiring Crane operators and riggers

Trego, WI. hiring CDL truck drivers

You’ll find a constantly updated source of information at the Total Resources Network website, and as an ATS graduate, you can use all the services on the site.

A factory owner once said that when he investigated workplace accidents, most of the time he was told, “I didn’t think it would do that.” His response usually was, “that’s right, you didn’t think!“

It’s easy to get accustomed to being around danger when you are working around heavy equipment and machinery. After all, most of the time things are fine, so the sense of caution begins to go away. Here’s a few of the safety rules you do have to keep thinking:

• Communication is essential – Hand signals, two-way radios, high-visibility vests and helmets, and a backup warning alarm have to be used so that everybody knows where everybody else is. In the contest between human bodies and big machines, the machine wins every time.
• Rollover protection and seat belts save lives – A lot of dead operators didn’t think it would tip and they were wrong.
• Hearing protection and other safety gear are there for a reason – You might not think it is going to make you deaf but wait a few years.
• Hold on to the safety handles when you get off the machine – Jumping off the equipment is something that the guy with the broken ankle didn’t think would happen.
• Inspecting and maintaining your equipment keeps you from mistakenly thinking everything is working fine – Do a pre-shift walk around to make sure.

These are the safety rules that get repeated over and over (along with a lot of other good information) when you get your heavy equipment operator training at ATS. It gets said in different ways at different times until you think you will never forget it. That’s the plan — we want you to know the safety procedures so well that even if you aren’t thinking, you’ll still be automatically following the rules and everybody will stay safe.

A lot of the time, our students come to us through an agency they are working with to find employment. It might be a job relocation, or veterans‘ assistance, or school counselors. It could be any one of the many government agencies designed to help people get a job and keep it. And if you are the one interested in heavy equipment operating, and the agency you are working with has never dealt with that interest before, there will be questions.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School has information for agency counselors available on our site, and we can also answer any questions they may have if they give us a call at (800) 383-7364. We can give heavy equipment wages & earning potential, employment outlooks, job descriptions, working conditions, training program descriptions, career service assistance details, Eligible Training Provider status, and other details they’d need to know in order to get you into the program under their aegis.

Agencies ATS Works With

There are many agencies who have worked with Associated Training Services over our decades of existence. We have a lot of experience at getting through all the paperwork that can be involved. We also can work with agencies not on this list; all you have to do is ask.

• Government employment offices
• Departments of workforce development
• Workforce Investment Act (WIA)
• Dislocated worker retraining programs
• Trade Readjustment Act (TAA)
• Vocational rehabilitation
• Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
• State Departments of Veterans Affairs
• Federal Veterans Administration
• Other agencies that help people find employment

Of course, you don’t need to be working with an agency in order to enroll at ATS, but if you are, we can work together to get you trained and on the job in a good career as a heavy equipment operator.

Some “employment assistance” places don’t really help you all that much. You could have access to a list of job openings but not given help writing a resume, for instance. One place held a resume-writing workshop where the instructor told the students that resumes really don’t matter because networking is how people get jobs! That workshop ended with a lot of students scratching their heads in bewilderment since they were there to learn how to write a resume. (And honestly, your resume is just as important as networking. It isn’t one or the other.)

What ATS Employment Assistance Offers

• Personal Career Counseling starts the first week of training, with an entrance interview where your Assistance Coordinator finds out what industries and locations you are interested in. Your individual goals become the base for the job packet you receive when you graduate; a list of employers, information about your training and skills, and other helpful stuff. Our Employment Assistance Department is open five days a week and we follow graduates up to make sure your career is where you want it to be — and if it isn’t, you can ask for help.
• Soft Skills are the things like writing resumes, interview techniques, networking methods, application procedures, and all the other factors that can keep a good heavy equipment operator looking for a job if they aren’t there. Your instructors are people who have worked in the industry in many positions and know what it takes to get that job.
• Job Leads at ATS are pulled from our Job Leads Database, one of the best sources of heavy equipment positions in the nation. For twenty years, this database has been constantly updated to maintain a comprehensive storehouse of information that students and graduates can search by state, city, or zip code whenever they need to find a new job.
• Total Resources Network is the ATS employment assistance website and this is truly a total resource. You can post your information and be found by employers looking for someone with your skills, or look for openings by location & job description. You can apply for jobs on the site, post resumes, network, and more. And, there’s no time limit on how long you can use it. If you need to find a new job ten years from now, you can get on the site as a graduate of ATS.

If you are a graduate of ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School, the answer to “how much employment assistance do you want?” is up to you.

Vets, Did you know that Associated Training Services has been in operation for over fifty years? We have had time to learn how to do things right, and to adapt to the new stuff coming into the industry. In the Training School sense, we are veterans because of those years of experience. We’ve invested the time and the effort to do our job well, and it shows.

But there’s another kind of veteran that we have a profound respect for and will always honor: the military veteran. 

Over the last fifty years, our organization has trained over 2,000 military veterans. We’ve helped them figure out the benefits they qualify for and ATS is approved as a career training course for many of those educational benefits. There are some programs for active duty members, National Guard, Reserve, and military spouses, too.

We appreciate the time and effort you have put into service to our country, and over the years we have seen that military veterans come into their training with a competent attitude and a willingness to do what it takes to accomplish their goals. This probably has a great deal to do with the fact that you’ve been in one of the branches of the Armed Forces and learned a lot there.

If you are interested in exploring the military benefits available to you with our financial aid office, we’ll be glad to help you do that. There’s even a scholarship for all honorably discharged veterans of military service, a scholarship ranging from $500 up to $1,500 depending on the program you enter. You’ll need to submit your DD214 to the school registrar to qualify for this particular scholarship since it is from ATS in recognition of your service.

And in case you don’t hear it from anyone else, Thanks.