How heavy equipment schools can move the industry forward

Komatsu collaborates with distributors and schools around the country to create training programs that help to provide employment assistance and help minimize the heavy equipment technician shortage.

With the national unemployment rate hovering under 4%, every industry is feeling the pinch of a tight labor market. In the construction and mining industry, it’s even tougher because many heavy equipment technicians are heading toward retirement. This fact is compounded by the large number of technicians who left the construction industry during the Great Recession.

In early 2019, Equipment World reported that the Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) estimates the heavy equipment technician shortage is costing its members $2.4 billion in revenue each year, which at the dealership level, averages out to $6 million per dealer, annually, according to Steve Johnson with the AED Foundation.

That means that the construction and mining industry is hemorrhaging money while customer satisfaction and machine uptime are reduced. We need to find solutions.

Part of the problem is the misperception that technician work is dirty and/or dangerous work. It’s simply not true these days, but those past stereotypes persist.

Technicians today receive excellent heavy equipment training, are technologically savvy, and have an entirely different skill set. Thanks to the best heavy equipment schools and technological advancements in the design of construction and mining equipment, some of the most important tools used by today’s heavy equipment technicians are onboard monitoring systems that provide data for troubleshooting.

Komatsu heavy equipment technician training programs

Our industry needs skilled talent, and to succeed we must recruit earlier in the job discernment process and retain highly skilled technicians by providing them multiple career paths. That’s why as an OEM, Komatsu is committed to focusing on heavy equipment training and heavy equipment technician career development. In conjunction with our distributors, we’ve created programs that focus on training heavy equipment technicians and currently have programs in various parts of the country. Two of those programs, one in Oklahoma and one in North Dakota, are partnerships with existing university programs.

A. Komatsu’s career training program with Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology (OSUIT)

The oldest of these programs is at Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology (OSUIT). For more than 20 years, we have partnered with OSUIT for the Komatsu Advanced Career Training Program heavy equipment training for students that want to become heavy equipment technicians. By providing state-of-the-art like virtual reality training, one of OSUIT’s most beneficial associated training services, the program can help reach new and exciting demographics of future heavy equipment technicians, like gamers for instance.

OSUIT’s Komatsu Advanced Career Training Program trains students to diagnose, service, and maintain our equipment using Komatsu recommended procedures, tools and service information. Those who complete the OSUIT program graduate with an Associate in Applied Science in Diesel & Heavy Equipment.

Students who enter OSUIT’s two-year program spend half their time on campus for technical instruction on current Komatsu equipment learning the latest diagnostic and service procedures. The rest of their time is spent in real-world training through paid internships at our Komatsu distributors.

As part of the program’s effort to provide financial assistance, interns get paid for the work they are training to do. They are more vested in their career because they feel that their potential future employer (the Komatsu distributor) is truly investing in their future as heavy equipment technicians.

B. Komatsu’s program with North Dakota State College of Science

In 2015, we developed a partnership with North Dakota State College of Science (NDSCS). There, we offer a two-year diesel technology program focused on Komatsu construction equipment and related products. The NDSCS program combines heavy equipment training on campus, with internships at sponsoring Komatsu distributors.

At the NDSCS program, students receive state-of-the-art training in one of the largest diesel technician facilities in the country—combining classroom instruction, hands-on laboratory instruction and cooperative educational work experience at participating Komatsu distributors.

The program provides students with extensive service experience on Komatsu equipment.

We are piloting another program in the Southwest, Northwest and central Midwest regions of the country that supports veterans becoming technicians. Similar to our programs with existing schools, this pilot program also partners with our distributors. We work with business partners to recruit former members of the military and link them to open dealership positions which will train them as Komatsu heavy equipment technicians.

Depending on the region, our vets to techs program takes a couple of different approaches. Some distributors have their own apprenticeship program, while others help veterans enroll in a two-year tech school and create individualized programs that have similarities to the program we have with OSUIT and NDSCS—where the technicians-in-training combine coursework with internships at our Komatsu distributors to provide better employment assistance.

Regardless of the heavy equipment training program for technicians, we support our distributors and the aspiring heavy equipment technicians. In some instances, the students are granted scholarships, while in others we help the distributors sponsor the students.

Finding the heavy equipment technicians of tomorrow

Additionally, online training with Komatsu's own learning management system is part of technician training. We also deploy virtual reality training for the NDSCS program and while we’ve made headway with both of these programs, we still have a long way to go. We have to go find the technicians of tomorrow, instead of expecting them to find us, and help them understand the value proposition and career path we’re offering. Often our technician recruits come from rural areas, so we’re hoping to expand our reach and find more programs that target urban areas.

We need to spread the word that when you train to become a Komatsu heavy equipment technician, you will make a quality living doing a highly skilled job—regardless of your location and background.

Future heavy equipment technicians need to understand that these heavy equipment training programs we offer are creating a more viable and rewarding career path than a four-year degree would for many people. We have to keep spreading the word about the compelling benefits behind these heavy equipment schools which are building better heavy equipment technicians for tomorrow.

There are very good jobs out there, and with programs like the ones mentioned above, we have the programs and resources in place to fill them. Let’s do this!