19 04, 2021

National Safety Zone Awareness Week

Each year there are thousands of crashes in roadway construction zones. National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW), April 26th-30th, encourages safe driving through highway work zones. Help bring awareness and make our roads safer for workers and drivers by discussing. Look at options for training in your organization like Cat®

7 04, 2021

Nevada DOC Prepares Inmates for Apprenticeships & Reduces Recidivism

Since 2017, the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) has been helping to build the state’s workforce. High Desert State Prison (HDSP) is the largest state prison in Nevada and houses approximately 3,800 inmates. Its vocational program is made up of culinary, automotive, and construction, and is the location for the

19 03, 2021

Meet the Simulator at Northeast Iowa Community College

Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) is using the popularity of hands-on simulation to recruit students to a career in the construction industry. Roger Solberg, an independent trainer-consultant for NICC and owner of Equipment Operator Training, LLC (EOT), is taking the Construction Equipment Operator Mobile Simulator Trailer across Iowa. Solberg said

9 03, 2021

Operating Engineers Local 49 new partnership with Minnesota Virtual Academy

Operating Engineers Local 49 is hoping a new partnership with Minnesota Virtual Academy will draw more high-school graduates into the union’s registered apprenticeship program – and help meet future demand for skilled, trained workers in the heavy-equipment industry. At the start of this school year, instructors from Local 49 began teaching for-credit courses

16 02, 2021

Iowa students get taste of equipment operation with simulator

Oelwein High School junior Austin Perry strapped on the virtual reality goggles and held up his hands to match hands on the screen, to calibrate the machine to his body, allowing him to see the heavy equipment simulation he had been practicing, now in 3D. He turned to look behind

5 02, 2021

Collins Career Technical Centers Adds Cat® Simulators Training

LAWRENCE COUNTY, OHIO (WOWK) — Collins Career Technical Center is training the up-and-coming workforce of heavy equipment operators a little differently this year. The Collins Career Technical Center recently installed two heavy equipment simulators to teach aspiring operators—and they do a lot. Mark Norris, the instructor of this groundbreaking new

21 01, 2021

How can you operate a safer machine?

Performing a machine inspection before a shift change is every heavy equipment operator’s responsibility. Checking over the machine only takes a few minutes but has big safety and organizational impacts. Learn and understand how to perform a walkaround in the safety of the virtual environment.

13 01, 2021

A Community Comes Together to Develop a Workforce

Donna Comer,  Program Manager for Heavy Equipment Operator (HEO) and  Plumbing Programs, has been with Workforce Solutions at Lord Fairfax Community College for 2 years. Founded in 1970, Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC) has two campuses and two sites, and serves eight locations in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and northern Piedmont

12 11, 2020

CW Matthews Simulator Apprenticeship Program

C.W. Matthews realized that the best way to have the most safe and efficient heavy equipment operators was to train them in house. But the consistent struggle in training new operators is tying up machines. Because “time is money” it becomes very expensive when machines are not productive. So developing

28 10, 2020

‘Be Pro Be Proud SC’ hoping to recruit younger workers to skilled trades

WESTMINSTER, SC (FOX Carolina) -- South Carolina leaders are hoping a 53-foot semi-truck trailer equipped with the latest simulation technology will get more young people interested in pursuing a skilled trade for a career. Today the trailer, called the Workforce Workshop, stopped at Tri-County Technical College's Oconee Campus. It's part