Lynchburg, Va. (WDBJ) – Central Virginia Community College has started a new program.

Simulators are helping students at Central Virginia Community College prepare for a much-needed career in our hometowns.

“We started the heavy equipment operations program here in response to our local industry needs. We wanted to make sure that our industry has the ability to hire skilled individuals that are going to be trained in the things that we do here, such as dozer operation grading, heavy equipment operations of all types. So they can have the employees to grow. They learn the operations of multiple pieces of equipment through simulation driving and through real-time driving as well, We use the NCCER curriculum. We have levels one through two right now and once Level three and four come out, we will implement them as well,” said Jason Clark, Coordinator of CTE Initiatives.

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Students will be trained on several pieces.

“They’ll have the ability to sit down on a piece of equipment that has a GPS or it could be a bulldozer. It could be an excavator. It could be a backhoe. It could be a skid steer and be able to operate that. We also have a forklift operation and may be able to add crane operations later,” said Clark.

The goal is to prepare the next generation in the workforce.

“The construction industry always drives, you know, housing markets drive your growth. So this is the first step in the housing. You have to clear the land. So if you don’t have enough people to clear the land, you get backlogged. So we’re trying to put enough people out there into the workforce to be able to fulfill those needs that these contractors have,” said Clark.

If you would like to learn more about the heavy equipment operations program, click here.

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