Course Overview

Building a home, installing a sewer line and widening a road are a few examples of the myriad tasks that require heavy equipment. In our Heavy Equipment Operations & Preventive Maintenance course, students explore the diverse employment opportunities for heavy equipment operators.

As they learn about the role of mobile machinery in various industries, students master the following skills:

• Operating articulated dump trucks, bulldozers and excavators
• Operating backhoe loaders, crawler loaders, skid-steer loaders and wheel loaders
• Inspecting equipment systems and performing preventive maintenance
• Using hand and electric or gas power tools ranging from hammers to jackhammers
• Surveying, site preparation and grading; employing erosion and sediment control

Instruction begins with job-site safety, blueprint reading, equipment rigging, and other fundamentals before advancing to activities like building a pad, backfilling a trench and slot dozing. Working in one of the nation’s best-equipped course labs of its kind, students learn to use more than 20 machines made by Case, Caterpillar, John Deere, Volvo and other big-name manufacturers.

Exercises on virtual equipment simulators are followed by plenty of practice with the real thing on an expansive outdoor training course. Students gain real-world experience by assisting with maintenance projects on the school’s 47-acre campus and off-site jobs supervised by their instructor.

Course Details

Course length: 9 months

Next start date(s): Fall 2024 dates TBD

Tentative schedule: 8:15 am – 2:45 pm, M-F

Credentials & college credit

Students who complete our course earn the following industry-recognized credentials:

• Flagger Training via Associated Pennsylvania Constructors
• OSHA Certification via CareerSafe®
• Pennsylvania Skills Certificate via NOCTI®

Students who complete our course are well-positioned to earn associate degrees at the following school(s):

• Lehigh Carbon Community College

Career pathways

with credentials earned at LCTI:

• Agricultural Equipment Operator
• Construction Equipment Operator
• Logging Equipment Operator

with credentials + experience:

• Construction Foreman
• Mobile Equipment Technician
• Surveying Technician

with more postsecondary training or college degree:

• Construction Manager
• Civil Engineer
• Civil Engineering Technician
• Surveyor

If you’d like more information in regards to Adult Workforce Education, please contact Amy Rex at 610-799-1316 or rexa@mylcti.org. Individual tours are available by appointment.

Learn more about potential career pathways.