Mechanic Training Courses Work Closely With Industry

While tech training programs in high schools may be dwindling in numbers, technical schools looking to train people to service and repair trucks and heavy equipment are seeing reason to grow.

From community colleges to schools dedicated exclusively to training mechanics, educational opportunities abound for people looking for the skills they’ll need to work around service trucks or in related industries.

Those who teach in and operate technical training programs say they have close ties to companies constantly in need of qualified workers. For those with the interest, work ethic and skill to excel in school, they said, it’s almost certain that there will be a job waiting once classes are done.

“These are good jobs, with good pay, there’s tremendous opportunity for advancement, and there’s a huge need in the industry,” said Patrick Rafferty, an instructor with the Truck Technician program at Saint Paul College in Minnesota.

A focus on mobile mechanics

While many tech education programs have a broader scope, there are some that focus specifically on training for the service truck industry.

At Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, Iowa, the mobile service technician program is aimed at students who will work primarily on agricultural equipment. Participants in the two-year program work toward an associate’s degree in applied science.

Kevin Butt, an agriculture professor who teaches in the program, said the college launched the mobile service focus a few years ago and is now ready to dedicate a full-time faculty member to the specialty for the first time.

Butt said it took a while to build enough funding and institutional support for the program, but industry support has been there from the start. The program was created after a manager at a local farm equipment dealer told the college that there was a shortage of qualified people to handle repairs while on the move.

“There are plenty of diesel technical programs around Iowa, but his comment was: ‘I can hire those a dime a dozen, but I need people in the service truck going up and down the road,’” Butt said.

For ag operations, which are increasingly located farther apart from each other, Butt said the problem is a growing one. When farms were closer, they could count on a local equipment dealer to be available with a mechanic. Now, they might have to drive 20 miles away to get something fixed, making a mobile mechanic all the more necessary.

Butt said a major focus of the problem is on “soft skills,” like problem solving. The goal: make sure that a new mechanic could sort his or her way through any type of fix on any type of equipment or system, even if it was unfamiliar.

“It could be John Deere, Case – there are multiple different types of planters and they’re not going to know what the problems are with every one,” he said. “The bigger issue is figuring it out.”

In addition to problem solving, Ellsworth teaches its budding mobile mechanics that they’ll need a variety of other skills, from sales to basic front-line customer service.

“These people are now the front face of the company,” Butt said.

At Montana State University — Northern, in Havre, Montana, service-truck focused students can opt for one of two special options in the school’s four-year-degree diesel program. The equipment management specialization helps train people who intend to manage a fleet, while the field maintenance operation includes more hands-on training in skills like welding.

Students in the field maintenance program often end up going to work for one of the area’s Caterpillar dealers, or into service for the mining, forestry or construction industries, said Larry Strizich, dean of the College of Technical Sciences.

“They have a number of folks out there in service trucks that provide whatever maintenance they need, and that’s kind of what we geared that degree for,” he said.

Students are required to participate in an internship in a real workplace – where both an employer and a potential employee get to try each other on for size. Strizich said about 20 percent of students in the broader diesel program opt for the field maintenance operation, and it is usually people with a specific mix of skills and dedication.

“Many end up in the shop,” he said. “It does take a special person willing to go to work in the field service truck.”

Diesel training

Other programs offer a broader range of courses that could provide a good background for someone looking to get into the service truck field.

That includes Saint Paul College’s truck technician program, a four-semester offering that instructs students on medium- and heavy duty trucks and provides broader entry-level job skill training. Students can earn a diploma after four semesters or earn an associate’s degree by picking up more general education credits.

Raffterty, the instructor, said he works with students straight out of high school and those who come seeking new skills from a different job path. He said either entry point can lead to a job, but students with some mechanical aptitude usually fare best.

“This is a trade that requires a high level of mechanical comprehension, hand-eye coordination and critical thinking skills, and not everyone is equipped with those skills,” he said. “So not everyone is capable of being a technician.”

Still, Rafferty sees plenty of room for advancement, especially among students who show promise by being prompt and professional – more skills that the program teaches and prizes.

Fresh out of the program, many graduates land jobs that pay $20 or more per hour, and with a few years experience that rate can nearly double, he said.

“There are unlimited job opportunities with different truck dealerships, trucking companies, independent repair shops,” Rafferty said. “They are eligible for jobs with different transit companies, and with railroads.”

It’s a similar story for students who attend one of 10 campuses of the Universal Technical Institute, or UTI, that offer diesel mechanic training programs.

The shortest program, on basic diesel technology, runs for 45 weeks. Then, students can tack on other specific training on certain types of equipment that can range from 12 to 16 weeks.

Working with industry

Much of the training is done in concert with companies in the industry that have a longstanding relationship with the school and its graduates, said Michael Romano, president of UTI’s campus in Avondale, Ariz.

“Our manufacturing relationships will in some cases take our instructors out of our campuses and on site to deliver education,” he said.

The school also offers online credential training for people who are already working as technicians but seeking to boost their resumes for work with specific companies.

Romano said the programs are marketed to high school students, older students seeking work in a new field, and members of the military looking to build their civilian careers. The program offers training applicable to a wide range of fields, including fleet service, mining industry repairs and mobile truck preventative maintenance.

“The cool part of this education is it opens just so many different doors for you,” Romano said.

Like the other programs, UTI offers training in professionalism and in working with customers.

“We’re probably the only school where students receive grades on their professionalism, and you can actually fail a class based on professionalism,” Romano said.

Building interest

Leaders of all of the programs said their biggest challenge is in recruiting enough qualified students to fill all the jobs waiting for them after graduation. Many fault the lack of funding and interest in middle and high school tech training programs, where many diesel technicians and mobile mechanics once got their start.

“A lot of kids have been looking for the white collar, high-paying jobs — not realizing that there are guys out there making a fairly decent wage at this with only two years of college,” Butt said.

Romano said it is clear that all training programs need to work at developing students as both proficient technicians and dependable employees. He noted that while many students “have a lot more maturing they need to do,” they also have plenty of promise. He said he and many instructors who end up teaching in the industry started out in the very programs they now oversee, following long and fruitful careers.

“We all start off with very rough edges,” he said. “Our job as educators and mentors is to smooth those edges and bridge the gaps.”

Erin Golden is a writer based in Minnesota.