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 TrainingKeeping pace with industry needs (May 2007) By Brad Randall, Training Plan Administrator I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff of the Training Plan for doing such a great job. Everyone works very hard and I know they have the best interests of the membership at heart. Keep up the good work. I would also like to welcome aboard Brother Robert Duff who has been hired as a Training Coordinator. I know Robert is very dedicated to the Local Union and Training Plan and we look forward to working with him. Many thanks to Brother Jim Ayotte for coming down from Kamloops to instruct our Grader Course. Jim did a fantastic job and we look forward to working together again in the future. Crane operator certification update WorkSafeBC announced in January that all crane operators in the Province of B.C. must be licensed through the B.C. Association for Crane Safety (BCACS) to operate mobile cranes, boom trucks, tower cranes and self-erecting tower cranes. The BCACS was created by WorkSafe to develop and implement the required testing procedures and training programs. All crane operators are being requested to register with the BCACS by July 1. Members can contact the Training Plan at 604-299-7764 to register. WorkSafe will require all crane operators to be licensed by July 1, 2008. Operators with an Interprovincial Red Seal ticket will also require testing and licensing. The BCACS are hoping to start testing operators near the end of the year. We are planning for these changes and have developed refresher courses for members who want to prepare for their test. We will notify the members when these courses are available. New training programs are currently being developed by the Industry Training Authority (ITA) and the BCACS. The new training programs will replace our current Mobile Crane Apprenticeship Program and are scheduled to start sometime this year. Apprenticeship Grant The federal government recently announced a new incentive program for apprentices registered in Interprovincial Red Seal trades. The Apprenticeship Incentive Grant Program provides $1,000 per year to registered apprentices who have successfully completed either their first or second year of technical training. The program came into effect Jan. 1, 2007. To qualify for the grant, members must apply by June 30th of the following year in which the technical training was completed. Training completed in 2006 does not qualify for this program. Registered apprentices in a Red Seal trade and indentured to the Operating Engineer’s Training Plan, are eligible to apply for this grant. We will be sending letters with more information and application forms to apprentices who qualify. Road building industry With all the construction work going on to prepare for the Olympics, road and highway repairs, bridge construction and residential site preparation, the need for productive, experienced operators is getting critical. Retirements are threatening to take years of experience out of the road crews over the next few years. Many contractors are starting to realize that, in order to stay ahead of the competition on future jobs, they must start to train operators now. The paving industry was the first to take the skills shortages seriously. Having young people work with experienced guys who help make our contractors industry leaders is by far the best way to go. There are more apprentice operators working in the paving industry now than there has ever been. Over the years, the Training Plan has successfully helped raise the skill level of asphalt and plant operators through our basic and advanced asphalt laydown operator and plant operator training programs as well as upgrading programs for our journeyperson operators. Almost every paving contractor has operator apprentices this season. This contributes greatly to the skills development of the industry. As always, the Training Plan will continue to work to improve training and the skill level of our members. We would like to thank Brother Brad Hoey from Island Asphalt who worked with Brother Steve Carter instructing our Plant Operator Course this past January. The members in this course have a wide range of experience in both Asphalt Plants and Crushers. Included in the course were three field trips to Columbia Bitulithic, Winvan Paving and Mainland Sand & Gravel. Many thanks to Brothers Reynold Amey, Rick Rogers, Dave Channel and Ted Carlson for taking the time out of their busy schedules to tour our class through their plants. As part of our Plant Course, we also arranged for Dan Bannister from Belterra to deliver a one-day seminar on material management systems for conveyors. In addition to the class, eight members from various employers also attended. As you can imagine, our asphalt laydown courses have been very busy this year. In our February course, we had Tony Vanneman from TOPCON deliver a Topcon System 5 seminar on automatic grade controls for pavers. We originally had planned a one-day course for the seminar but, because of increased demand, we ended up running two seminars. In total, over 40 members from the paving industry attended the seminar and were very pleased with the content. We really appreciate the support we get from the asphalt industry and would like to thank the following contractors for donating the equipment that makes our courses so successful: Columbia Bitulithic Rubber tire/double steel rollers Winvan Paving Combination roller B.A. Blacktop Champion grader/double steel roller Jack Cewe Cat paver New Heavy Equipment Operator pilot program Sixteen new apprentices began a four-week Heavy Equipment Operator pilot program on March 5. The apprentices were accepted based on one of three requirements. Either they had completed the Road Building Foundation Program, had more than a year’s experience in the road building industry or were sponsored by the Training Plan. The apprentices completed one week of theory based training and then were exposed to six pieces of construction equipment. They received practical seat time on an excavator, backhoe, loader, grader, dozer and articulated rock truck. Even after successful completion, graduates will need to continue their training on specific equipment to attain the additional operating hours required to receive the ITA Certificate of Qualification. They can then go on to achieve additional endorsements for all six pieces of equipment. The OETP is one of only two organizations in B.C. contracted to deliver this training. Annual Open House & Heavy Equipment Rodeo Our annual Open House and Heavy Equipment Rodeo is on Saturday, June 16 at our Maple Ridge Training Site. Call the Training Plan or see the notice on the back cover of this edition of OE News. See you there. Work safely. |
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