Real Training on Simulated Equipment for Students

Dylan Jones

SCHOHARIE– Capital Region BOCES Heavy Equipment Repair and Operation [HERO] senior Dylan Jones uses a heavy equipment simulator recently at the Career and Technical Education Center - Schoharie Campus.

Thanks to a National Grid Workforce Development Grant, Capital Region BOCES took delivery in 2022 of four new heavy equipment operator simulators that will are used to train students on how to operate backhoes, bulldozers, graders, excavators and dump trucks.

BOCES acquired two more of the simulators this year for the new HERO program at the Career and Technical Education Extension Center in Albany.

Students interchange using simulators and operating real equipment based on their schedules and the lesson plans for the day.

Jones, who attends BOCES from Sharon Springs, said the simulators are beneficial to him and his classmates.

“The simulators give me more stick time [practicing operations] and allows me to practice my operator skills,” he said.

An aspiring equipment operator, Jones credits BOCES with “teaching me important skills and allowing me to not have to sit at a desk all day.”

Teacher Matt Millard said the simulators are routinely used in the Heavy Equipment Repair and Operation program in which students prepare for careers in the heavy equipment and construction industry.

There are approximately 70 students enrolled in the program on the two campuses.