Here at Fox Valley Tech, it's a lot of
hands-on; it's a lot of applied learning
We have lecture for an hour and come out
to the lab and then pretty much we just
go to work. It's all hands-on, so you really
apply what you learn. Some of the things
that I've worked on my classes are
everything on a heavy-duty vehicle doing
an engine overhaul or doing a brake job. Pretty much you name it, we do it here.
In the shop the equipment we work on is heavy-duty trucks. We have a fleet of our
own here. We are currently in the process
of buying five brand-new trucks.
Seems every semester in the shop we get some form of new jack stands
or a new computer. Almost every semester, we have some piece of new technology helping us.
Instructors have been very helpful with letting me achieve my goals.
They are very knowledgeable. Any question I have let me try and figure it out
myself and if I do need help, they're
always there to help me.
The biggest benefit that I received by coming to Fox Valley Tech is definitely the job opportunity
that I was given by pursuing my degree. So many employers looking for
Fox Valley Tech students in my program.
Some of the biggest benefits that we have
in our program is we have a live fleet of
trucks for students to work on. We have
60+ power units that come in daily
for different maintenance routines and
repairs. So our students have the
opportunity to work on live equipment,
which is a big advantage when it comes
to working out in industry, They have that experience.
Other advantages are we have
tools here for our students to use,
so our students don't have to purchase their own set of tools to come into our program.
We tend to spend less time in
the classroom and more time out in the shop
working hands-on: taking stuff apart
figuring out how it works and putting it back together.
Students have about 6-hour day,
maybe 1 hour spent the classroom
covering theory, and the rest of the time
is all the shop working hands-on.
We have all the OEM service diagnostic
tooling so whether it's Caterpillar,
Detroit Diesel, Cummins, we have the tools here we have the same diagnostic
software that's being used out in industry
for repairing these trucks.
Employment opportunity for our diesel students, they're almost endless right now.
Currently we have over 200 job postings
on TechConnect since January 1st.
Last year, we had over 500 job postings, and that doesn't include all the employers
that called me up weekly sometimes
almost daily looking for technicians.
Most of our students are currently employed at least part-time,
but once they graduate, the normal starting pay, you can see anywhere from $13/hr or $14/hr
upwards around $17/hr.
Somebody that's considering a career in
diesel, some advice that I would give them:
The sky's the limit. Where do you
want to go?
If you want to be a technician for a few years then go out and be a shop foreman,
service writer, parts technician, sales... there's other opportunities besides just being a diesel technician.
