Western Canada’s largest heavy equipment operator training school has opened a new location in Mission.
Interior Heavy Equipment’s (IHE) newest training site opened earlier this month and is located at 11750 Dewdney Truck Rd.
This is IHE’s third training site – the other two are located in Winfield, B.C. and Innisfail, Alta.
“It gives me great pleasure to confirm to everyone that IHE will be expanding operations to the Lower Mainland. Response has been very positive and well-received to date, by the public as well as our stakeholders and industry partners alike,” said IHE president Mike Hansen.
IHE offers hands-on equipment training for excavation and construction equipment operators looking to get employed in the forestry, mining, civil, road building, and oil and gas sectors.
The new site was created because of a growing need for more training opportunities.
“Over the years we have had a lot of people traveling to the Interior from the Lower Mainland taking the training,” said IHE’s business development manager Christine Bay.
She said there was a “lot of lobbying to open a site closer to the province’s larger population base.”
“We chose Mission as the site. A few sites were considered and looked at. We wanted to be in an area that was central enough that people could access it easily, in and out,” said Bay.
The training site will teach anywhere from 20 to 60 students at a time, and courses range from three weeks to 10 weeks, depending on whether students want to train on one machine or all six.
“We are a little different than other colleges. We are open for weekly intakes so every Monday any student can start any course that we have a seat available. And by seat I don’t mean classroom seat I mean a machine seat. We don’t train on simulators,” said Bay.
Students range in age from 25-30 up to 55-60.
“A lot of them are on their third or fourth careers.”
No previous heavy machinery experience is needed. For information, visit iheschool.com or call toll free at 1-866-399-3853.