Best Heavy Equipment Operator Schools

Your North Country Heavy Equipment School tuition includes lodging at its off-site facility. There are five bedrooms and three community bathrooms. Enjoy free WiFi, a fully-equipped shared kitchen, and even a backyard grill and table. If you choose not to stay there, there are plenty of motels with discounted rates as well as several campgrounds nearby. 

Heavy equipment you get to work with includes an excavator, articulated motor grader, articulated front-end loader, compact track loader, 6-way angle blade dozer, extendahoe backhoe, and tandem axle dump truck. Students will earn their Excavation Competent Person Training (ECPT) certification during the four-week training.

National Training, Inc. has a 350-acre campus in Green Cove Springs, Florida, where students receive National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) registration for bulldozers, loaders, backhoes, and excavators. Learners also get a training certificate to show to potential employers. During your time on-campus, you’ll complete a pre-hire application which will be circulated to potential employers nationwide. To enroll, you must be at least 18 years old, but you do not have to have your driver’s license. 

Tuition costs $11,995 and includes your registration fee. There is also a $75 administration fee not included in your tuition. Schooling consists of classroom lessons and hands-on equipment projects and exercises. Classroom theory hours total 72, and hands-on work totals 136 hours. The program duration is four weeks, all on-site.

Because tuition is subscription-based, the faster you go through Vista’s program, the cheaper it will be. Each course takes one to two hours. The subscription covers up to ten users, which is perfect for construction companies wanting to train employees. 

You can also pay-as-you-go without committing to a subscription and purchase each course for $49. This is a great solution for someone on a budget. Alternately, you can pay $129 per month per course library to get access to the following courses:

• Heavy Equipment Library: 8 courses
• Support Equipment Library: 7 courses
• Lifting & Rigging Library: 8 courses
• Pipelayer Installation Library: 3 courses
• Online Video Library: 70 videos

Heavy equipment covered includes articulated haul trucks, backhoe loaders, dozers, motor graders, track excavators, and wheel loaders.

There are three courses offered by PTS: Heavy Equipment Operator I, Heavy Equipment Operator II, and Mobile Crane Operations. Each is three weeks long or 120 hours. You’ll attend a class every weekday near Columbus, OH. The Heavy Equipment Operator courses are $6,995 and provide NCCER certification. Mobile Crane Operations costs $6,495 and offers certification through the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO). 

While PTS’s website lists only a few states served, you can attend school no matter which state you’re in provided you can attend classes every weekday on-campus. You must be 18 years or older to enroll, and if you have any disabilities, you need to request accommodations ahead of time. Equipment you’ll learn to operate includes cranes, backhoes, skid steers, wheel loaders, and off-road dump trucks. The school also offers nationwide, lifetime, career assistance after you graduate.

Before starting your apprenticeship with IUOE, you must complete a 40-hour pre-apprenticeship training at your local union’s training facility. During your apprenticeship, you’ll get three years (6,000 hours) of training. This includes 192 hours of correspondent training and 240 hours of classroom instruction; the rest is learned on the job. 

Becoming an apprentice with IUOE doesn’t cost you anything. In fact, they’ll pay you so you can learn on the job. Apprenticeship positions are highly competitive within IUOE with some locations getting so many inquiries they hold a drawing and randomly select 50 people to receive an application. If you can’t get into your local program, you can search for available positions nationwide.

Located in Waterloo, Iowa, Hawkeye Community College will let you earn your non-credit certificate in eight weeks under the Construction Equipment Operator Training. This combines both light and heavy equipment in 240 hours of both in-class and hands-on learning and involves both working in simulation and on heavy equipment. You’ll work with bulldozers, excavators, skid steer loaders, large wheel loaders, motor graders, mini excavators, all-terrain forklifts, and dump trucks. 

Tuition is $4,499 and doesn’t include any meals or lodging. However, the campus is located right next to a busy shopping area with plenty of lodging and meal options. There are a limited number of scholarship applications available as well as a limited class size, so apply early.