As a high school student Niels Ackerman attended Construction Career Days in Orlando, Fla. The program is designed to introduce school students to the wide range of career opportunities available to them in the construction industry in a hands-on environment.
The event sparked Niels’ interest in the industry and led to him participating in the Think Big program. This two-year, hands-on service technician scholarship program is offered by Ring Power and five other Southeast Cat dealers in partnership with South Georgia Technical College. Last year Ackerman graduated from the program and is now employed as a Heavy Equipment Service Technician at Ring Power’s Orlando branch.
Last month Niels returned to Construction Career Days along with members of Ring Power’s training department.
Niels, Bob Delp (Technical Training Manager) and Gabe Sacco (Training Instructor) put together a presentation with a running 2.2 engine and various hands on parts and photos of Ring Power and the Cat® products and allied lines Ring Power supports.
In addition to learning about career opportunities in the industry, students were divided into teams of two to compete for a Cat hat. They were handed the tools necessary to swap bolts and nuts on two sprocket segments. The team that first completed the task correctly was given the choice of 1 of three new Cat hats.
After that exercise students moved to the 2.2 engine which was hooked to ET and started, in “real time graphing” the display showed: engine speed, percent of torque, requested throttle.
18 sessions were conducted over the three days, with more than 300 students attending.