Construction Equipment Guide
470 Maryland Drive
Fort Washington, PA 19034
800-523-2200
Thu May 20, 2021 - Northeast Edition #11
Among the biggest challenges the industry faces is a severe shortage of technicians, specifically an extremely low number of young people willing to train to fill the positions that are open. Equipment dealerships across the country openly state that one of the biggest challenges they face in the future of their operations is being properly staffed with heavy equipment technicians.
Capital Region BOCES Career and Technical School located in Schoharie, N.Y., offers high school students educational opportunities in a wide variety of vocational areas, some of which would build a basic foundation for work in an equipment dealership. Some of these vocational areas include heavy equipment operation, auto body collision and repair, diesel mechanics, welding and metal fabrication.
Robert H. Finke & Sons in Selkirk, N.Y., works closely with organizations like BOCES and colleges in the SUNY system like Cobleskill and Morrisville that offer vocational programs to get students exposed to the type of positions available at its dealership.
On April 30, 2021, a group of students from Capital Region BOCES spent the morning getting a guided tour of the Robert H. Finke & Sons facility, along with a detailed explanation of the bright future and benefits offered by choosing a career in the heavy construction equipment industry. CEG
Bob Rowe explains to students the wide variety of tasks that a mechanic at Robert H. Finke & Sons could face during the course of a day, using the Vogele paver in the background as an example. Finke technicians, as he explained, are not typically tasked to working on a specific make or model of machine day in and day out. They could be working on a Vogele paver in the morning and a Bobcat skid steer in the afternoon.