There are a lot of factors to consider when undertaking training for a new career. There’s the matter of funding to pay for your training, the loss of income while attending training, and for some students, finding accommodation as well. Fortunately, ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools have thought of these problems and we have solutions to help students overcome them.

When it comes to funding your training, we have some sound advice on this blog (see posts on financial aid here) and on our website. You can even apply for financial assistance online through us. When it comes to loss of income, we have developed our training programs in such a way that students can be trained and ready for employment in the shortest time possible.

Housing assistance is always a difficult option. Do you stay at home and travel each day, or do you try and find accommodation closer to the training school? With gas prices the way they are, travel can be expensive, not to mention a time-hogging option. ATS has resolved that problem as well. For students wishing to train at our Sun Prairie training school, we can arrange finance for the ATS dormitory. This is a very comfortable establishment that is only four miles from the training school and within easy walking distance of restaurants, grocery stores, and shopping centers. We even offer financial assistance to help cover the costs of your accommodation.

With your accommodation taken care of, you can start to concentrate on the more important issues – studying to become a heavy equipment operator – and we’ll be there with you.

It’s rather sad to read online newspapers sometimes, especially when you work in the field of heavy equipment training. One of the core areas of heavy equipment training is safety, and it’s easy to see why given some of these stories. To see these headlines, you would think that backhoe operations were extremely dangerous, yet in reality, operating a backhoe should be a very safe occupation. Some of the headlines from the past month include:

• Man Killed After His Backhoe Tips Over
• Orangeville Man Killed By Backhoe
• 6-Year-Old Girl Injured While Playing With Backhoe
• Gas Line Explosion In Lake Worth After Backhoe Incident
• Backhoe Gets Stuck In Mass. Ave. Tunnel

With the exception of the last news article, taking a little more care may have prevented these accidents. When a child is injured, the first question raised is related to how secure the operator had left his equipment while unattended. Severing a gas line is a team problem – someone should have had maps of the services to they could avoid any underground problems. The last point, while not a problem caused by the backhoe operator, is still an example of what can go wrong.

Undertaking heavy equipment training can help you to avoid many of these incidents, simply through the safety training that is now incorporated in that training. Safety should always be on the mind of a heavy equipment operator. Working safely in the work place demands attention to everything both in the cab and on the ground around you. Backhoes are generally very safe vehicles to operate, however, if you don’t have that safety training, you won’t know how to stay safe.

Bulldozer operators are employed in a wide range of industries. While construction, particularly road building, is the major industry for bulldozer operators, experienced operators can also find work in areas as diverse as a state’s fire department. A news article from September last year really highlights the benefits many fire departments receive through employing bulldozer operators.

I should modify that – the real beneficiaries are those who have homes under threat of fire. The news story relates to the Cal Fire Department and the work the bulldozer operators did during the 2003 wildfires that threatened to burn the historic town of Julian. Working at night, with almost zero vision, bulldozer operators were able to clear the ground around many of the houses, thus preventing the fire from reaching them. To quote from the news article:

“These guys were on some really steep slopes getting in and around houses — I mean right up against the houses, clearing the vegetation back. We didn’t have the resources for fire trucks at the time and they were able to ring these houses, remove all the vegetation so the fire couldn’t get to these houses and saved a lot of them.”

It’s dangerous work. In fact, bulldozer operators have lost their lives while out fighting fires, yet their work is essential in saving homes, businesses, and sometimes the lives of others. It’s work that often goes unheralded as well so it’s great to see a news article that champions their existence within these fire departments.

Fire departments have to be selective when employing bulldozer operators. They require operators that are skilled, well versed in safety issues, and able to keep a level head when all around them is in chaos. While new operators would struggle to find employment in this area, undertaking a thorough bulldozer training program is the first step that could see you joining a fire department at some time in the future.

If you can see yourself one day working as a bulldozer operator for a fire department, do yourself a big favor – make sure your bulldozer operator training is delivered by the best in the business. With a good grounding, you’re ready to start work to gain the experience required to fulfill that ambition.

There’s no denying we are living in an era where our population is rapidly aging. The baby boomers (those aged over 55) are rapidly reaching retirement age and this is starting to leave skill shortages across a wide range of industries. The truck driving workforce has an average age of 44 years with over 50% of all drivers aged 35 plus. With a high proportion of those drivers being from the baby boomer era, their retirement from the workplace is starting to create a truck driver vacuum.

Statistically, the trucking industry is only recruiting at a rate of around 1.2%. Meanwhile, the rate of those leaving the industry is around 2.5% – this is leaving an annual shortfall of at least 1.3% – while percentages may mean little, with over a million people employed as truck drivers, that’s an annual shortfall of 13,000 new drivers. As demand for more goods rises, this shortfall will only become worse.

The trucking industry has reached a point where younger drivers are needed. It has not quite reached desperate status yet, however, in some regions it’s not far off it. Trucking has struggled to lure younger people, with most new recruits being in the 30-plus age group.

For those in the 21-30 year age group, now is a great time to seriously consider truck driving careers. Wages and conditions are good and new drivers are assured of long careers with relatively stable employment. During the recent recession, few drivers lost their jobs and those that did were able to find new employment fairly quickly.

If you’re considering a career change, then look a little closer at the trucking industry. It only takes a few weeks of truck driver training and you’re ready to start your new career.

Are crane operators well paid? According to the Wall Street Journal they are. At least, some crane operators in New York City are. The report suggested that some crane operators in the city were earning up to $500,000 each year in wages and benefits. And no, that’s not a misprint; they are collecting a half million each year.

Of course, the majority of crane operators are on far less than that – probably more like 10%, but $50,000 a year is still nothing to sneeze at. If you make it to a high rise crane operator’s position, your wage will be significantly more. Still, statistics show that crane operators in general are amongst the highest paid workers on construction sites.

If you consider the responsibility that sits in the hands of a crane operator, then you can understand why they are well paid. If you look at mobile crane operators, they still have a lot of responsibility in their hands. Their job can be dangerous, especially to others, and as such need to be very competent, very reliable, and very safe in the way they work.

Because of those demands on crane operators, it is hard to get reliable and skilled workers into the profession. This is one of the reasons why they draw larger paychecks than most others – employers have to offer better wages, benefits, and conditions to attract those good operators.

It takes several years experience before you can attract those higher paychecks, and that experience needs to demonstrate your reliability and skill. The only way you can ever hope to build a good long term career as a crane operator is by having a good skill foundation to begin with, and that requires quality crane operator training through a well respected training organization.

Undertake training today to become a crane operator, and who knows, in ten years time you could be operating one of those high rise cranes and taking home paychecks that most of us can only dream about.

There are several factors that need to come together that will ensure you have a long and happy heavy equipment operator career. The first of these factors is you. How keen are you to really work in this industry? If you are keen, then the rest can be fairly easy to work on. The second most important factor is your training.

Training to become a heavy equipment operator needn’t be long. Your training should provide you with a good grounding in heavy equipment operations along with workplace safety obligations. Your training should combine in-class training and actual hands-on operator training. Heavy equipment operations is one of those careers where you improve with experience – provided you have the good grounding to begin with. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools has developed a good reputation for providing industry with graduates who have that good grounding – there are thousands of successful heavy equipment operators now working successfully following our training.

The third leg of a successful career as a heavy equipment operator is just as important as the first two. That third leg is your first job. After graduating from your training school, you need to find employment that you are going to enjoy, employment that will allow you to continue learning, and an employer that understands you’re a rookie, someone who needs to find their feet in their new career.

We can never promise to find you employment. No one can – at least, not the ‘perfect’ job. We do have a specialized department, our career services department, whose only aim is to help you find that first job. We work with you to sift through all the potential employers in your region to find those that are best suited to you. More importantly, we have worked with many of these employers for a long time. They understand the difficulties that new graduates face, and often work with them to develop their new skills.

To become a successful heavy equipment operator, you need commitment on your part, training that provides a good grounding (and we provide that), and a good job to get you started – and together, we can work on that. You too can join the thousands of successful graduates who have entered the workforce through our training – you just need that commitment.

While excavators continue to be used primarily for digging trenches, they still have a variety of uses, even in that task. Excavators can have a wide range of tools fitted and the tasks they can perform range from splitting concrete or rock to raising and lowering loads. As an operator, you need to learn how each of these tools are used if you are going to have a successful long term career.

Watching an excavator at work can be an interesting experience. They may start by lifting part of a concrete sidewalk to gain access to the dirt below. They then switch to a digging tool to start digging a trench. If they are being used to replace underground pipes, they will switch to another tool to help lift the old pipes out of the ground.

As an operator, you need to work with precision using the right size tool for each job. With pipe work, an operator will often lower the new pipe into the ground and then slowly refill the trench. Some of the newer smaller excavators also have bulldozer-like blades at the front. This can help to speed up the back filling process.

You can become an excavator operator by completing three weeks of heavy equipment operator training. This will prepare you for entry level employment in an industry that is often well paid and continually looking for more skilled workers. You will also be entering a profession where learning never stops – your heavy equipment training course is only the first step in a career long learning curve. Every new piece of ground has the potential to teach you something new.

While legislators have been grappling with rules and regulations aimed at making workplaces safer, employers have been busy doing just that. When it comes to heavy equipment, accidents can have a wide range of effects, and from a business point of view, none of them positive. With this in mind, many employers have made heavy equipment safety their number one priority.

If you consider the effects of an accident on a work site, you’ll understand why. Here is a small list of some of the effects of a work place accident:

• Insurance – The more accidents associated with a business, the higher their insurance premiums. A safe workplace will result in lower insurance premiums.
• Repairs – Every time a heavy equipment vehicle has an accident, there are repair bills. Sometimes, rather than repairing that vehicle, the damage is such that the vehicle requires an expensive replacement.
• Down Time – Accidents often bring a work site to a standstill. Down time costs money since workers are still being employed, but their is no productivity. To add insult to the injury, many construction contracts have penalty clauses for late completions.
• Morale – Perhaps one of the biggest hidden costs is that of low morale that always follows an accident, especially if an individual is seriously injured or killed. Low morale can lead to low productivity and further accidents.

One simple accident can have a flow on affect that costs a business tens of thousands of dollars. That cost could have been saved if everyone had undertaken basic workplace safety training. Today, that’s exactly what is happening. Most employers now expect their new heavy equipment operators to have undertaken some form of heavy equipment safety training – if they haven’t, they generally won’t employ them.

If you are considering training for a career as a heavy equipment operator, make sure your training is through a well respected training organization, and that their training includes a module on heavy equipment safety.

If you’ve worked as a crane operator in the past and you’re considering moving back into the profession, you will have to consider many of the changes that have occurred in recent years. One of the biggest changes is that, in most states, crane operators are now required to be certified to a set of national standards. Technology has also improved so you may even require some retraining in order to pass certification assessments.

Retraining is an easy three week program that covers everything required to complete your certification tests and to receive certification. While basic crane operations will always remain the same, there are some areas that have now been taken over by computers. A good example is load monitoring. This is an alarm system that warns the operator when the computers have discovered an issue with the load.

Certification is awarded to those operators who complete the NCCCO-based written and practical examinations. The NCCCO (National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators) crane operator certification is one of the most widely recognized crane operator certifications available. Without this certification, operators are not allowed inside the cab of a working crane.

Associated Training Services (ATS) is one of our nation’s largest and most respected crane schools. While training operators is our core business, we are also accredited to undertake the examinations set out by the NCCCO for crane operator certification. This provides students (or former operators) with a clear path from training through to certification and then employment (via our Career Services department).

If you’re a former crane operator looking to return to the profession, or a rank novice looking to start a career, ATS has the skill, experience, and accreditation to help you achieve those goals.

Current and former members of the military can access a range of benefits to help them undertake heavy equipment training for a new career. There are several restrictions on the type of training that can be undertaken. For example, the training organization must be approved to deliver these services.

When you served and for how long you served will also affect the level of benefits available. In some situations, you are also able to transfer benefits to a direct family member. The types of benefits available include:

• Montgomery GI Bill ® – There are a number of eligibility criteria for this bill and you are better off talking to a VA vocational counselor as to your eligibility.
• Post 9/11 GI Bill ® – Provides assistance for training and housing. You can transfer some of your entitlements to dependents.
• VetSuccess Program – Rehabilitation and employment program for veterans with service-connected disabilities
• Survivors & Dependents Assistance – Provides education or training assistance to spouses and their children following the death of their partner whilst on active service.
• Active Duty Personnel – May be eligible for the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP)

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools are approved for the use of Veterans Educational Benefits. You will need to check with the respective government departments to see whether or not you are eligible for any assistance under these programs. You may also be eligible for state-based military education benefits so check with your state’s web site for more information.

Heavy equipment operations are a perfect opportunity for those who have been in military service. The camaraderie that operators have with each other has been likened to the military as has the need to work with precision. Former service personnel also find that continuing to work outdoors a lot more satisfying than trying to adapt to an inside job. If life as a heavy equipment operator appeals to you, and your have been involved in the military in some capacity, then you may be eligible for assistance to help you with your training.