By:  Jacob Groves

New equipment enhances Heavy Equipment Operations training

The Muhlenberg Job Corps Center received $500,000 from the Department of Labor to bring its Heavy Equipment Operations career technical training program into the 21st century. Muhlenberg Job Corps used the $500,000 allotment to purchase a skid-steer, dozer, mini-excavator, excavator, front-end loader and backhoe.

This equipment will allow HEO trainees to train on various equipment with specific uses.

HEO Instructor John Austin explained that “having these machines will definitely help students to get the skills needed to get a job with companies that own the newer equipment.”

HEO Instructor Chuck Chaney added, “This will allow us to modernize our training since our previous equipment was well behind the curve. While some companies still use the older equipment, most employers are using newer, up-to-date equipment that utilizes many new additions. This is a huge leap in technology as most of the previous equipment used was from the 1970s and 80s.”

Muhlenberg Job Corps is one of 10 Job Corps centers nationwide and one of only three Job Corps centers in the Southeast to offer the Heavy Equipment Operations training program.

Having the new equipment also allows Muhlenberg Job Corps to better serve the community with community service projects that provide students with hands-on work-based learning that is essential as students transition out of the Job Corps program and into employment.

HEO students and instructors proudly standing in front of the new equipment.