The hardest part about this is that everybody has known for years that there would be a shortage of trained people in industrial and heavy industries yet nobody made a move because everybody was waiting on someone else to make the first move. Now everybody is scrambling to find trained people and looking for someone else to blame.

Dearth – your general analysis is correct …
more specifically, industry has reduced their investment in training over the past 20-30 years and still works on the premise that they can scoop up some other companies’ experienced workers … gov’t doesn’t want to invest in industry type training because it is expensive to provide current up to date training and wants industry to “buck” up … industry only wants to play with gov’t if there is a handout or subsidy for industry (does Canfor’s recent pitch for a training centre in the BCR site come to mind?) … in the meantime, the experienced workers have retired or moved on …Catch 22+

as an aside, it is interesting to see CNC partnering with College of the Rockies (Cranbrook) instead of Northern Lights (Ft St John and Dawson Creek) … Lots more expertise in the oil patch with Northern Lights … maybe the fact than CNC – Mackenzie doesn’t play nice with our northern neighbours and tries to “compete” with them is coming home to roost

“Now everybody is scrambling to find trained people and looking for someone else to blame.”

Wait a minute. This is a four week training course. It costs $7,500 to register.

There are private companies that do that. Probably fro similar money.

How did they used to do this? Certainly not with a simulator. I assume like anything else with a short duration skills training experience the training was done on the job. They did it with the real thing.

http://www.cnc.bc.ca/__shared/assets/Haul_Truck_Driver_Program22930.pdf

Thousands over 10 years. And that is for several skills, haulers just being one. But many are short programs. We are not talking about training doctors, engineers, etc.

So let us say we need 5,000 new haulers over 10 years. That is 500 per year. Say 6 courses per year per location and say 8 students per course. That means the COTR and CNC can train about a 100 per year. I am sure we can set up another 8 courses in a few places in BC and Alberta.

So, the big concern is this. Those 100 that CNC and the COTR can train over the next year, will they be guaranteed to get jobs working the mines and oil sands?

Chicken Little’s sky is falling again.

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In case people did not know it, the COTR is a very progressive college responsive to local industry needs. They may have developed this with Teck which still employs apprentices.

Actually, here is the skinny on the program and whyit exists.

http://www.cotr.bc.ca/press/fullhdLine.asp?IDnumber=695

I checked Grand Prairie Community College’s offerings under “oil field” … appears they although they are close to the oil fields they do not know about the shortage of hauler drivers yet.

https://www.gprc.ab.ca/coned/courses/?cat=421

Here is the Keyano College page. They are right on top of the oil fields, so they may be the originators of the program.

I noticed they take in 15 students per calls and run 10 courses per year. So that means they must be taking pretty well taking care of their own needs if they run full classes.

http://keyano.ca/programs/trades%20industrial/haul%20truck%20operator

Tuition is just over $7,000

So, tell me please, someone, where is the shortage going to be when we have this training going on which, due to the short duration and the introduction of simulators, can fill gaps as they develop.

So, the other question I have is why do the haul truck manufacturers not provide training? I thought that with specialized heavy equipment that would be the way it is done at delivery time as well as an ongoing program. After all, these mining haulers are not your average truck. They cost in the millions each, need special roads, special filling stations, special mechanics and special operators. It is a whole program. Why are Colleges even involved in this?

Here is Finning’s site for their training facility, inclusing driver training in Arizona.

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/caterpillar-797-specialty-file

Here is what Volvo does for its trucks wit respect to training drivers of their produts in India. It really needs to come as partof the customer support service from the product manufacturer.

http://www.volvotrucks.com/trucks/india-market/en-in/services/insurance/pages/insurance.aspx

The cost of tuition should weed out a lot of good drivers. Mostly those that like debt and or are government sponsored will be involved in these programs, and likely less than half of them will actually work in the field.

Not scientific, but I find those that were taught by family, got their license through moving up in their place of work, or just learned the old fashion way seem to be the ones that make good long term employees. The flash in the pan ones that go through all the training are usually soft with no natural skills, don’t like working the hours or locations, and generally go back to what they were doing previously after a year or two after great costs to their employer.

When the training sponsorship is offer most think it will be an easy career where they get to sit down all day. They are not expecting to have to go to where the work is, work long hours, often getting dirty doing physical work securing the load, driving with no connection to the outside world other than Lad1, chaining up in minus20 snow storms, and keeping it between the ditch on some horrendous roads at certain times of the year. In the long run that is what weeds out the work force and generally always creates more job openings in the field. If they can get a retention rate of 25% they will probably be doing good.

This is a haul truck

http://curezone.com/ig/i.asp?i=12831

This is a semi truck
http://www.theallineed.com/engineering/06082204.jpg

Haul truck drivers do not secure loads, or chain up.

The most dangerous part of their job is that they sit all day and may one day find that they can no longer climb the ladder to their plush driver seat surroundings.

Some of the delay in training new truck drivers is for medical reasons as they need time to recover from the manditory complete frontal lobotomy. In some cases a second operation is needed to remove even more grey matter:)

Bonus: Since the invention of Velcro they do not even have to know how to tie their shoes!

Some of the delay in training new truck drivers is for medical reasons as they need time to recover from the manditory complete frontal lobotomy. In some cases a second operation is needed to remove even more grey matter:)

Bonus: Since the invention of Velcro they do not even have to know how to tie their shoes!

And burger flippers don’t need any training or brain surgery to post childish comments here on 250.

Could be that those who earn a lot less than the industry average for their type of work have no sense of humor.

My mistake then. I just can’t fathom that they would need “thousands’ of ‘haul truck’ operators trained. Figured it must have been a typo and they were actually talking about semi truck drivers. Obviously the semi truck drivers is what my comment was directed at.

So ‘haul truck’ operators paying $7000 for training with no guarantee of a job. Or paying anything for that kind of training is ridiculous. Really is something that the companies should be training for on site. Hire the guy if he fits the qualifications, and then put him in the truck and train him up with a probation period would make more sense to me.

The government really shouldn’t be footing the bill for this kind of training let alone the prospective employee. Its a trade that should be employer funded IMO. Have the employers pay the full cost of the program and only those hired with a job should be enrolled.