Heavy Equipment Skills Unveiled

Most of us don’t really see what goes on behind the scenes when it comes to mastering heavy machinery, the skill, the precision, all of it. Today on Bring Back The Porch, we’re heading inside Medicine Hat College’s heavy equipment lab to show you how raw talent turns into real-deal industry expertise.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction 
01:17 Overview of the Heavy Equipment Program and Curriculum
02:07 Student Perspectives: Coulter's Journey and Continuing Education
03:13 Brady's Path: From Industry to College and Back
04:21 The Value of Returning to College as an Apprentice
05:37 Skills Competitions: Challenges and Learning Opportunities
06:24 Understanding ABS and Heavy Equipment Challenges
07:10 Training for Skills Competitions: Extra Hours and Preparation
08:17 Judging and Industry Involvement in Skills Events
08:56 Range of Equipment Covered in Training and Competitions
09:34 Handling Nerve-Wracking Moments in Skills Challenges
10:01 Mentorship and the Role of Employers in Apprenticeship
10:56 Inspiration: Growing Up Around Heavy Equipment
12:06 The Journey of Becoming a Heavy Equipment Technician
13:10 Physical Demands and Coping Strategies in Heavy Equipment Work
14:16 Hobbies and Passion for Mechanical Work
15:23 Employer Support and Continuing Education
15:52 Networking and Industry Connections Through Skills Competitions
16:54 Industry Judging and Support for Students
17:45 Student Excitement and Preparation for Skills Competition
18:07 Closing Remarks and Appreciation for Heavy Equipment Students


Medicine Hat College has been home to a comprehensive heavy equipment program for 17 years. The program graduates about 24 journey persons each year, equipping them with the skills needed to thrive in various industries.

The importance of proper training in heavy equipment cannot be overstated. According to Keon Clift, an instructor at the college, the curriculum is designed to build foundational knowledge over four years, allowing students to gain hands-on experience with the machinery they will operate in the field. This structured approach ensures that graduates are not only competent but also confident in their abilities.

For students like Coulter Kallenberger, a third-year apprentice, the decision to return to school was driven by a passion for the field. "It’s just what I like to do," he shares, emphasizing the importance of education in enhancing job opportunities and skillsets.

Brady Merrick, a journeyman who completed his schooling at Medicine Hat College, highlights the challenges of transitioning from fieldwork to classroom learning. However, he acknowledges that the theoretical knowledge gained is essential for long-term success in the industry. "The theory is still there," he notes, indicating that the college prepares students for real-world applications.

Skills Competitions: An Opportunity to Excel

Participating in skills competitions is another way for students to apply what they’ve learned in a competitive environment. Coulter mentions how these experiences expose him to challenges he might not face in regular work, enhancing his problem-solving abilities. When it comes to competition, the level of adjudication is high, involving industry experts and instructors. This ensures that students receive constructive feedback and understand industry standards, preparing them for future careers.

The heavy equipment training program at Medicine Hat College is instrumental in shaping the future of aspiring operators. With a focus on both theoretical knowledge and practical skills, students are well-equipped to enter the workforce confidently. If you're considering a career in this fie

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Transcript

0:00

Hey, this is Brian again. And I'd like to ask you to do a favour. We can't do this work without people like you. So if you can, please, like, share, subscribe. Tell your friends about bring back the porch. Pretend I don't know what abs is because I don't. What is abs? It's basically a safety system that was implemented into trucks. It's when you're, it it applies and releases your brakes so your tires don't skid. This episode of Bring Back the Porch, brought to you by Bernie Leahy, River Street Realty. Let's get you Hello, and welcome to Bring Back the Porch, a very special edition. We are at Medicine Hat College, and we are in one of the very different places that people don't really get a chance to see very much. This is the heavy equipment lab at the college, and I'm pleased to be joined by a few fellow skilled people. We have Colter Callan, broker Brady Merrick and instructor Ken Clift who are joining us. Welcome. Hi. How are you today? Good, good. And I want to start with you. You probably have the most level of experience. Could you kind of explain where we are and what this place is? Yeah, we're in the heavy equipment lab. The lab's been here for 17 years. We've offered the heavy equipment program for. And, you do? All those years, we've, managed to build it up to. We have all four years that we we teach out of this building, and we teach multiple years, and most, of the years of curriculum. So we might teach, like two first two seconds, two thirds, two fourths after that. So we've got quite a few classes into the year in here. And yeah, we graduate typically two classes a year. So, it's 24, journey persons that we put into industry each year typically. So, Colter, I want to start with you. You are a third year apprentice, is that right? And where do you work out of when you're not at school? I work at Acorn. Oh, and Radcliffe there. Okay. And what does it mean to you to be able to come back into school? I'm assuming as as a third year, you're at the point where it's up to you if you want to continue your education. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. That's kind of some you decide after first year, I think. But, And what made you decide that you would go back to school and, and continue? I just it's just what I like to do. There's nothing really that I find interesting other than that work, work wise. So I just decide to go with it. Does it give you the chance to do more things in your job because you have a higher education? Yeah, I mean, the education helps, but the guys at work also help. I wouldn't be they put a lot of trust in me and allow me to do things that other apprentices might not. So it definitely helps me with my knowledge and all that. Brady, you are a journeyman. And, did you do all your schooling here at the college? Yep. Yeah. So how how long did that take you to do? Were you, like, in industry for a while and come back, or were you pretty adamant about going. You do ten months and what we call the field and then you two months in school. So did it take you four years to complete everything? Yeah. How hard was it to come back to school and get out of the field and maybe not have that paycheck and stuff? It's hard, but, you know, it's going to benefit you. And. So. I mean, you go from being in steel toed boots for ten hours a day to having to sit in chairs was, I don't know, it's a little hard, but it's all worth it in the long run. What does it mean, for the college to have apprentices that come back? I mean, I mean, that's obviously what we strive for is to have, our students kind of come back and enjoy their time that they have when they come to the college. So it's huge, right? We hope to see each one of our students be able to come back for all four years of the curriculum. That's what we'd like to see. There's certain cases where that might not be possible just because there might not be classes offered in the timing that they're looking to be able to complete. But for the most part, we we seem to get most of our students to come back and complete through here, which we're happy for. Oh, definitely, I bet you. Yeah, yeah. The school life compared to the work life, it it there's the practicality of things and then there's the application of things in the real world. Brady, maybe you could kind of speak to what that is. Is it different or is what the college teaches you? Is it what you need when you get out into the field? I mean, like, they teach you the theory. End of it, but take you like, they have all these fancy training, boards and stuff that they can add bugs and to and whatnot. So you kind of, know what's going on, but, I mean, from what they have to, like what we deal with on a daily, like, dealership to dealership kind of all has their own ways of doing things. So it's a little bit different, but the technical theory is still there. Would you say that, the equipment that they train you on here at the college is beneficial to what you would have in the field? Absolutely. Yeah. Great. Colter, there is another part to why we're here today. Yeah. We're going to talk a little bit about skills. Have you competed in skills before? I have, yeah, one time last year. Okay. What was the experience like? It was good. I definitely learned a lot of stuff. I experienced things that I've never seen before. So it taught me, figured some things out about that. I've been able to apply it on the real world at work, too. So. So is it a matter of a different set of challenges, or are they exposing you to problems that you just hadn't seen before? Yeah, I mean, there was just some there was like one thing that I haven't dealt with, just as I'm not really, I don't really focus on truck work. I'm more on the dirt side of things and pavement side of things. So I didn't really touch abs. We went through much abs stuff up there, so that helped me, be able to learn a little bit more about abs. Okay. Pretend I don't know what abs is because I don't. What is abs? It's basically a safety system that was implemented into trucks. It's when you're, it it applies and releases your brakes so your tires don't skid. And key and, training for skills and helping students go to this level of competition. What does that take? Like how many hours extra are these guys putting in to to do that? Typically, Colter and I work anywhere from 2 to 4 hours a week, depending on on the weeks and what we're doing leading up to the competition. So we started pretty early this year, and we were doing two hours a week. And maybe as we get a little bit closer to the competition now, we might, you know, have, a day in the shop and then we might do an evening where we do, we usually meet at Tim Hortons or coffee and kind of go over some other stuff that we kind of would, would look at. And then, you know, from that I build in extra training or things that we think we might want to still do in the shop to go through and support them. A lot of it, you know, how to read through some of the documentation when you get there as well. And some of the finite things that you might be able to pick up on to get a little extra merch out of it. Things to do with safety and procedural, stuff when we get there. So you sort of have another set of eyes on you when you're going to these skills, competitions. What is the level of adjudication and the judging that's going on? Who are the people that are judging you, or are they other instructors or are they elites within the industry? Yeah, I mean, they can be anyone. Like, it can be like alumni, you know, from skills like like if I was did like all my four years of skills and stuff, you can go up there and you can be a judge. There's lots of instructors from other like, training institutions that are judges, and it's kind of the they just kind of go around and pick people like, there's some guys from finning, there's some guys that bring like, whoever bring the trucks and they, they'll judge to it's kind of all over the place. Maybe, if we could kind of understand the equipment that we're talking about. These are all heavy duty trucks. Or is it other equipment like backhoes and. That kind of stuff? Yeah, it can be. It can be anything in in our realm. So it can be on highway tractor trailer, units. It can be off road equipment. They do drive trains. So they could be differentials, transmissions, tracks, wheels, bogies. Basically, it's anything inside of that, that is inside of our curriculum. So anywhere from off road equipment, on road equipment, it's all, in there. And that's why it's it's tough, a whole culture being. Last year, he was just completed his first year. And he hadn't seen really at that point, except for a work any of the off road training, part of it. So you really kind of get a look at where the on road side of it when we looked at things like drive, train, for differentials and things and drive shafts, you know, drive train angularity, stuff like that, that we would train over. He hadn't had any experience in that, that stuff that we see in second, third and fourth year. So those are things that we started working on or training through. So when he got up to the competition, he had the ability to, you know, hopefully complete and go through those stations. Colter how nerve racking was it? It's pretty nerve racking. Yeah, that's pretty bad. Brady you've done skills as well, right? No, no, it's this your first time? You're not going. Okay. You're just here to talk about the experience of being a journeyman and going through that. Yeah, yeah. He's Coulter's dream. And so teach him. I teach him at work. Oh, okay. So he's my teacher here. And you're the teacher in the field. And he's my trainer, trying to teach him as much as I can. And then I kind of goes back and forth. Do you think, having that relationship of working together, does that help? Or for him to be able to, like, ask you questions, maybe be more comfortable in the field to to go through things? Yeah. Yeah. I always try and give him things that are kind of unorthodox. And then I mean, like if the key on and call to do something here, I maybe I can take him out and show him and kind of help him out that way. So it's more you get a little bit more hands on maybe actually ripping it apart. It's I just trying to like, find out a gear reduction or something like that. How did you guys I'm going to throw this out to all you guys. How did you guys ever decide that this is what you wanted to do? Like, did you grow up in, working with this kind of equipment, or was it just something that really fascinated you? My dad's. Mike had a millwright mechanic. So, my mom said when I was a kid, they had to, cut the cords off of drills and stuff because I figured out how to plug them in, and I was racking the walls and whatnot. So. Right. And then it just started when I was in junior high, we had a lawn mower and I said, take it apart. And yes, here I am now. So the idea of taking something apart, figuring out how it works and then putting it back together is kind of your jam. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Have you had something that you went this is, I don't know how how I took this apart, and I don't know how I'm going to put it back together. Almost every day. But we have all sorts of literature that you need step by step stuff. So as long as you can read the questions and follow which guys kind of have a hard time doing it, follow instructions. You'll make it through. Yeah. Okay. And how did you get involved? Not only in, the heavy equipment aspect, but deciding, oh, I want to teach other people how to do this. Well, I started off really as a kid. I used to race dirt bikes, and so repairing my dirt bike to get it ready to go between races was where I started to do mechanical work. That led to, you know, eventually, working at a lake in Jasper, Alberta, where I started working on two remotes for helping work on tour boats. And, that led me into wanting to be an apprentice. From there, I ended up at a dealership in Edmonton and right from there, all the way down to, doing oilfield work in Medicine Hat. That's how I ended up in Medicine Hat out of Edmonton. And as I was doing that and the colleges starting to, open up and get their trade started, I really enjoyed working with all the people. Right. Training, my apprentices throughout the years. So I thought, well, this is something I think I'd like to be able to do. So I put my hat into the thing there, and I managed to get a job here at the college, and I've been here for, just about 18 years now. Also. Wow. Yeah. How about you? Right. My dad. Yeah. Yeah, I was, he's he's a lifelong tradesman. Same with my grandpa and all that. And I was, I mean, in the dirt bikes, too. And then when I got my truck, my dad was in Fix It Up by himself. So I was out there, and I always want to be registered on stuff. So what is the physical demand of the kind of work you do? I think people don't understand that. You know, it is. You're it can be pulling a wrench all day. Is not an easy thing. It's hard on the hands, hard on the back. How do you how do you cope with that? Choose your brakes. That or I don't know. It's because sometimes it is hard. But, especially when you're bussing 16 hour days for a week straight and all that stuff, but you find your time, right? And usually employers are pretty flexible on your days off and all that stuff. Is it all valuable? You all right? So usually it's pretty good. I would imagine. There's, The love of fixing doesn't stop when the work day is done, though, that as you must have hobbies that involve taking stuff apart and putting it back together, too. Yeah, like, if I'm on the weekends, I don't want to do like, I really don't want to do anything other than wrench on stuff or I'll be like, like I can't sit around none of that. I want to be working on something like, I don't I really don't find joy in anything else. I can understand that. I, a very quick story. Our next door neighbor, he worked as a mechanic at a dealership in Regina. And his hobby on the weekends is racing cars. So he just go from one cart all day at work to the car at home, in the shop. And I think that's, you know, that's a standard mechanic thought process for the most part. Most of us have other little projects at home that we are always tinkering with or doing something with, for sure. Brady, maybe you could, talk a little bit about the importance of the employer and your ability to be able to come back to school and then go back to work. The ability for them to let you do they let you do that, or do you have to apply to do it? How does that work? Use you got to get permission from them to go back. Once you're in the program, if you don't come back almost yearly, the trades people, they start climbing up your tree. Why aren't you going back to school? And you're going back to school, and you can get kicked out if you don't go back. So there is a bit of a push or encouragement for you to continue to go through the whole apprentice process. And, culture with going to skills competition. How does that change your relationship with your employer? Obviously, you're putting in extra hours and extra time off that you need to do this. Have they been for that there? I mean, there's they're always good. Like like I said, my employers really, they really, have a lot of trust in me and a lot of confidence. So they're not really worried about me going to do anything like it. It benefits both of us, right? Because it's extra training. So I would imagine, too, that when you go to these skills competitions and you meet the other guys that are working at an elite level, if there's a problem, if there's a bug, if there's something that you can't figure out, you've met somebody that's like, oh, well, we use that a lot in my industry. You can sort of network and find people that you can bounce ideas off of. I mean, usually you're kind of, oh, by yourself in the skills club, usually it's kind of a bad thing. But but afterwards. Yeah. Well I, I guess and maybe I'll just go to that. And the people that you meet there, absolutely. Networking people. So you might meet somebody from the news. So if you're working on a piece of equipment, you're stuck. You, you know, as they were working on something, he'd be able to, you know, maybe get a hold of somebody from training and they would help and support them for sure, or they'd reach out to one of the people, maybe in the industry, that maybe they were able to meet at one of the competitions. That's definitely a possibility for, for sure. A lot of our industry members that are at the competition, that are judging are more than open to helping or supporting. Right? Our students that are going through the skills competition, not just at the competition, but, you know, later on when they go back to work and whatever they're doing. How excited are you to go up to me? I mean, I'm pretty excited, but I'm also stressed out. How are you going to deal with that? You just put your head down and go, Yeah. Usually I just relax a couple of days before, and then when I get there, it's just. You just gotta do it, right? Usually I don't let it affect me once I'm there, but it's just. It's just the mind game before you get there, right? So like any elite athlete, you have to put in the focus. Yeah, pretty much. Well, you guys, I really want to say thank you for taking some time to talk to us on the porch. It is fascinating to me that there are people in this world that can look at something as big as this truck and know everything that is on it and how it works, and all I worry about is staying out of its way. So thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. Appreciate it. I'm.