Heavy Equipment Courses Led to Important Role in Automotive Field

In the automotive industry, Heavy Duty Equipment Technicians have a variety of important responsibilities. First and foremost, they are responsible for checking bulldozers, cranes, graders and other heavy construction, agricultural, logging and mining equipment for proper performance and inspect equipment to detect faults and malfunctions. As such, jobs can be found in a variety of areas. In addition, Heavy Duty Equipment Technicians diagnose the faults or malfunctions; adjust equipment and repair or replace defective parts, components or systems; test repaired equipment for proper performance and to ensure that work meets manufacturers’ specifications; and much more. In addition to Heavy Duty Equipment Technicians, this field also has a need for service managers, service writers or coordinators, equipment company representatives, or college or industry teachers.

Training is available at Centennial College where students can attend a two-year apprenticeship program called Heavy Duty Equipment Technician, which results in an Ontario College Diploma. In order to apply for the college’s heavy equipment courses, students are required to have completed at minimum an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) or General Educational Development (GED) or equivalent. Non-academic requirements include: satisfactory results in a program admission session, experience and mechanical aptitude, resumé and English proficiency.

To complete this program, students spend the first eight months in school, eight months in co-op as registered apprentices and a final eight months in school. The standout aspect of the Centennial College Heavy Duty Equipment Technician offering is that it provides a combination of business courses with a wide range of heavy equipment courses. For example, students attend Occupation Health and Safety, College Communications, Organizational Behaviour, Global Citizenship, Fixed Operations Management and more. Meanwhile, Heavy Duty Equipment courses focus on applied mechanics, vehicle dynamics as well as component design and repair, as it applies to the apprenticeship curriculum. During the in-school portion of the Heavy Duty Equipment Technician offering, students are based at Ashtonee Campus, Ontario’s largest transportation training centre. This fully-equipped campus offers students the chance to fix actual heavy duty equipment vehicles using tools that are used in the field.

Once students have a base knowledge and have experienced practical practice, they spend eight months at a heavy equipment facility and then return to the college to complete their entire Ontario apprenticeship in-school curriculum in two years. The co-op experience provides the opportunity to not only apply what was learned in school but also to network and get to know professionals in the field. Many students end up staying on as full-time employees at their co-op placement upon graduation as they enter the apprenticeship aspect of their careers. The Heavy Duty Equipment Technician co-op is a paid placement.