TC High School Students Complete Capstone Certification Program
On 12/10/24, 24 Toombs County High School students, in the Heavy Equipment Operators (HEO) Career Pathway, completed their end of semester Capstone certification process.
The Capstone process requires the high school students in the HEO Pathway to be certified by industry partners, McLendon Enterprises, Inc., as heavy equipment operators by showing their competency on real heavy equipment. Students who have completed the Excavator or the Dozer aspect of the pathway are given rigorous tasks to complete, and they must show competence in safety and inspection knowledge of the equipment. They must understand and demonstrate control knowledge and usage prior to task performance. The students are then observed as they perform the tasks of grading dirt, pad building, trench digging and design, backfilling the trenches, and loading trucks while following OSHA Standards simultaneously. They also have to complete an obstacle course operating forward and backwards through the course that was designed by the McLendon Enterprises, Inc. team.
The majority of the students have more time on simulators than on real iron equipment. The simulators designed by CAT SIMS are intentionally designed to set a higher expectation to score well. The simulators are more difficult for the student to operate than the actual machinery so the student is better prepared the actual iron machine in the real working environment. 'These heavy pieces of iron machinery can be intimidating to students when they hop up in the seat of the machines and they feel its power and movements in a real-life scenario but the simulators prepare them for this,' according to Brent Holcombe, McLendon Safety and Health Director.
Certification day began with a safety meeting and a pre-task briefing just as if it were an actual real life construction project. The students understand the certification process is not a competition, it is the real deal to certify them as true heavy equipment operators and gives them a genuine certification for future job opportunities that can follow them wherever they go.
Holcombe expressed gratitude to the supporters of the program, 'We appreciate the Toombs County Board of Education for getting behind this vision that we had and for helping us bring it to fruition. We are especially thankful to Tom Brodnax, the HEO instructor for TCHS. Tom goes through the same learning experience as his students and his dedication to the success of this Pathway project has been very evident by the 100% job placement record TCHS holds for each of these students when they graduate from this pathway.”
The team responsible for implementing the Pathway project and the Capstone certification are from left to right Cade Bennett, Blake NeeSmith, Tim Adams, Tom Brodnax, Derek McLendon, Brent Holcombe and Matt Holcombe.
