TACC Field Trip to the Operating Engineers Training Center!

On Wednesday, April 12th, OTI’s current group of Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class students had a fabulous field trip to the Operating Engineers training center! The students heard from Brenda Bartholomew, who was an operator and is now an instructor at the training center. The students were also shown a short film that focused on the portrayal of female Operating Engineers who work in the industry and on what they love about the work they do.

Students had the opportunity to look at the text books and some of the survey equipment used by operating engineer apprentices in the classroom and afterwards they got to try their hand at operating some of the heavy machinery; including 2 cranes, loaders, and a forklift, among other pieces of equipment. Current apprentices had the opportunity to teach our students how to operate the machinery and gave our students lots of time to ask questions. It was awesome to see students teaching students! Before this field trip most of the students had not considered a career as a Heavy Equipment Operator and they now consider it an option. Needless to say, our students had a great experience on this field trip and have given a lot of positive feedback. Special thanks to the Operator Engineers Training Center staff and apprentices for taking the time to help our students learn about another great option for a career in the construction trades!