Students get heavy training (1/10/04)

ANDERSON — When 40 Jay County High School students traveled down to International Union of Operating Engineers Local 103 on Thursday, instructors there had no intentions of letting them use some of the largest cranes.

But after watching the building trades students operate the crane simulator, instructors quickly told the students to file outside and get some experience on the real thing.

The I.U.O.E., which is located between Daleville and Anderson on old Ind. 67, is an apprenticeship and skill improvement program for future operating engineers.

The apprenticeship program requires trainees to spend 6,000 hours on the job under direction. Individuals are required to operate a host of heavy machinery, including cranes, hoists, bulldozers, backhoes, pavers and several others.

The JCHS vocational building trades students make the trip once a year to learn about the machinery, and for many of them it is their only chance to operate equipment of that size.

“The instructor on the crane simulator was so impressed with my students that he has agreed to take them outside and let them run the crane,” JCHS vocational building trades instructor Tom Weaver said.

As junior John Pitman was operating one of the larger cranes — swinging a concrete bucket in between cones on the ground — I.U.O.E. instructor Mike Smith leaned out of the cab and yelled, “Hey, I’ve got four-year apprenticeship guys that can’t do that!”

Of course, not everybody was perfect on the crane simulator. A pair of instructors were laughing in the training room after some students got a skid swinging so badly it left the computer screen.

“This has just given them the chance to get to know the equipment a little bit, and to let them know what they want to do,” Smith said after instructing a few students on the crane.

“I was really impressed with some of those boys over there on the backhoe.”

The students were divided into four groups where they learned about backhoes, cranes and crane simulators, mechanic repair and they also took a hazardous materials lesson.

While the trip was educational for the students, instructors also used it to recruit potential apprentices.

Some instructors were so impressed with some of the performances on the machines, they pulled students aside and advised them to fill out applications for the program before they headed back to Portland. Two — mid-semester graduates Jamie Welling and Justin Ridgeway — were asked to come back for interviews.

“It’s really enjoyable. You learn a lot while you’re here and you get a lot of opportunities,” JCHS senior Ryan Wallace said of the trip. “I’ve thought about coming down here on my own time to fill out and application. It just depends on what opportunities come my way. But I think it’s a really good program.”

“We’re a secret that shouldn’t be a secret,” I.U.O.E. vice president and apprenticeship administrator John Nunley said of the program. “If you like that type of work, it’s a really good thing.”

Weaver takes his students down to the facility once a year, and many of his students have entered the I.U.O.E. program after graduation. The vocational building trades class also builds a house every year, and their instructor realizes many of the students have outstanding potential.

“It isn’t always the kids that are on the college track that go on (to be apprentices at I.U.O.E.), but it is the kids that have a feeling for the equipment,” Weaver said. “They signed up for this class because they wanted to learn outside construction techniques, and that’s why this is a good fit.”[[In-content Ad]]