Real Training on Simulated Equipment for BOCES students

SCHOHARIE– Capital Region BOCES senior Garrett Hempstead 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 be used to train students on how to operate backhoes, bulldozers, graders, excavators and dump trucks.

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 currently 50 students enrolled in the program, which is expanding for the 2025-26 school year to the currently under construction CTE Extension Center that is being built near the Albany Career and Technical Education Center.

The expansion will allow dozens more students to prepare for careers in the industry.

The simulators compliment the more than one dozen pieces of heavy equipment to learn how to operate and maintain. They include everything from graders to bulldozers, backhoes, dump trucks and bobcats.

“These simulators will better prepare our students for making the leap to operating the equipment and will also allow them to practice when the weather is not great,”  said Capital Region BOCES Managing Program Coordinator-Business & Community Partnerships Nancy Liddle.