Attracting Young Heavy Equipment Operators to Construction & Mining

These days, finding and retaining good construction and mining operators can be tough. With so many people switching careers or just looking for a fresh start, it can be difficult to get enough candidates in to fill your open positions.

If you haven’t yet extended your job search to young people, you may be missing out.

We previously wrote an article discussing new ways to find young heavy equipment service technicians who are interested in the skilled trades. In this article, we’ll share similar information related to heavy equipment operators.

To help us gain more insights into the topic, we recently spoke with Jim Wabals with the Lehigh Career & Technical Institute, and Craig Turnbaugh with the Lancaster County Career and Technology Center. Both are involved in SkillsUSA — specifically Skills Pennsylvania. Jim and Craig have been instrumental in starting and developing the current Pennsylvania heavy equipment competition for high school students which has been around since 1999.

WHAT IS SKILLSUSA?

SkillsUSA is a nonprofit organization composed of students, teachers and industry representatives working together to prepare middle school, high school and postsecondary students for trade, technical and skilled service careers. SkillsUSA serves more than 333,000 students and instructors annually, including over 19,000 instructors (like Jim and Craig).

There are 53 state and territorial associations — and this is where you, our reader, come in. Being involved in your state’s training or operator competitions (or even helping get them started) is an important part of helping find the youngsters who will become future heavy equipment operators in the near future and in the long term.

HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?

Below are some top tips shared by Jim and Craig aimed to engage younger kids early on, grow awareness of your company with tech and high school students, plus help your company be a bigger part of skills trainings and competitions in your own state.

• Approach young students with an Information Day visit.

Yes, starting young is a critical step to help kids understand how we build the world around us. Ask to set up a visit with 4^th or 5^th graders where you can explain what your company does and how machines are used. Again, if you can easily demonstrate some of the new technologies to add a cool factor, that helps keep kids engaged. If you do set up an event, consider a snack or prizes to hand out if the school allows it — it’ll make a difference!

• Host an annual company tour or career fair.

Place an ad in your local/regional paper or post banner ads on community websites. Be sure to demo machine operation during your event so families can see the machines in action and understand how they’re used. You could even consider putting on a competition or rodeo with your onsite operators that students can watch.

• Demonstrate new technologies to show how machines can enhance an operator’s experience.

Younger generations are typically intrigued by advances in technology that make operating machines feel a little bit like gaming. Consider demonstrating things like GPS, telematics, advanced features like Volvo Active Control, in-cab operator assist programs, etc. Pairing technology with new ways of thinking will make future operators even more accurate and productive — and showing them how fast advances are brought to life in the construction and mining industries can become an incentive to explore machine operation even more.

• Be on an Occupational Advisory Council for an existing program at a career and technical school.

These councils are essentially “steering committees” made up of people from business and industry which provide input on topics such as curriculum and equipment. They help the programs deliver quality instruction which is both current and relevant. Typically, the councils meet twice a year (fall and spring). To get involved with an advisory council, most schools have an application which must be completed and submitted.

• Attend tech school open houses.

Get involved by asking how to get a heavy equipment program started at that location. Your company could help set up the programs, provide machines for training and more. Your involvement will open doors to meeting young students who could become future operators for your business.

• If a high school or trade school already has a heavy equipment program, get on board.

Contact your state SkillsUSA organization and ask how your company can get involved to help develop and support competitions related to heavy equipment. Support could take several forms including (but not limited to) providing equipment and/or judges for the competitions to providing prizes or awards for the competitions.

WHAT KINDS OF SKILLS WOULD THESE INDIVIDUALS HAVE?

Most high school career and tech students are enrolled in either a three-year, half-day program, or a full-day senior program. Students are taught the basics of heavy equipment operation and maintenance that an equipment operator should know on all types of machines typically found on heavy highway, commercial industrial and residential earthmoving projects. Most students move on to employers who have a construction apprenticeship program.

Students in heavy equipment programs have a desire to work in the heavy equipment industry — that’s why they enrolled in the program in the first place. Most have a good work ethic and are willing to learn, in addition to their operating and maintenance skills.

Most competitions utilize new equipment which incorporates the latest technology, allowing the competitors to gain exposure to cutting-edge machine innovations.

HOW DO THE COMPETITIONS WORK?

SkillsUSA isn’t known by many people who work outside of all the trades areas. Almost all trade school students, including those who attend post-graduation trade schools, are introduced to Skills as they start their training and education in their particular trade areas.

Most classes start by holding some form of local in-house competition to determine who the top students in the trade area at that school are. In most trade areas, the winners of the local competitions then represent their respective schools at a district competition. The winners at the district competitions then earn the opportunity to compete at the state level. A note, this is currently not the case for the heavy equipment competitors in Pennsylvania (and likely some other states). Because there aren’t many schools that offer heavy equipment training at the high school level, the winners of the local competitions in Pennsylvania go directly to the state competition.

HOW CAN I GET IN TOUCH WITH STUDENT COMPETITORS IN MY STATE?

All Skills competitors in all trade areas must turn in a current resumé to compete at the state conference. Employers who visit the competitions can leave their business cards for the competitors to make contact.

Any company representative that serves on the trade program’s advisory committee can ask to be involved with those students who are training and working to be successful while they compete at the state level of SkillsUSA.

To help students find you, be sure to contact your local career and technical schools to notify them of any job opportunities in your company.

It’s never too early to get involved with youth who aspire to become future operators in our industries. As more and more operators are expected to retire in the coming years, being involved with programs aimed at these younger individuals now can give your company a leg up when it comes time to find and hire your future workforce in the field.

By Volvo CE and Guests Jim Wabals with the Lehigh Career & Technical Institute, and Craig Turnbaugh with the Lancaster County Career and Technology Center