‘First of its kind in Idaho’: Good Help Operator School opens its doors in Chubbuck
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CHUBBUCK – A new technical school has opened its doors in the Portneuf Valley, and local business leaders are calling it “the first of its kind in Idaho.”
The Pocatello-Chubbuck Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday afternoon for Good Help Operating School, which just graduated its first class on March 20.
At the school, located at 280 Laurel Lane in Chubback, students learn how to become “good operators” of heavy equipment, according to Greg Birch, the school’s director.
Birch said instructors do more than just train students to operate heavy equipment; they teach students the right way to do so.
“We train the students to come through, to be able to find a job right away, and be an immediate impact to the employer,” the director said.
In addition to heavy equipment training, students receive training in how to be good employees and the keys to good personal finance. The school also offers the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s OSHA 10 training, which teaches them how to be safe on the job.
“That’s the biggest thing in construction, is how to be safe,” Birch said. “… so that if they’re brand new to construction, they’re not walking into something that’s unfamiliar. They’ve seen it, and they’ve touched it and felt it in our class.”
And with the school’s personal finance training, Birch said students learn “basic budgeting with your paycheck, what a paycheck is, and then we also teach how to build your credit, how to keep good credit.”
“There’s just a lot of people who may not understand or know (about personal finance), and so we try to incorporate that as well, to feed the complete package coming out of the school,” Birch said.
The Chamber of Commerce’s news release about Friday’s event identified the school as “the first of its kind in Idaho.”
“There are other heavy equipment operator trainers around. … Here in Idaho, we are the first heavy equipment operator school,” Birch explained. “And what sets us apart is we — instead of using simulators — we get on the real machine and do real-life scenarios.”
Birch said that the school has “big sites” that give students hands-on experience, and it offers construction services for free.
“If somebody needed a pipeline dug out, or something excavated, we can do that under supervision and under safety standards … so that, A, our students learn in a real life scenario; and then B, it’s helping the community out — for people who may not be able to afford whatever it is that they got (us) to do,” Birch explained.
But before students do that, they must first spend a week in the classroom. “And then we are able to go out and touch the excavator and teach them in a better controlled environment,” the director said.
The whole training course lasts three weeks. Pricing varies depending on the certification a student is seeking, but there are loans and scholarship opportunities available.
Potential students who want to learn more can visit the school’s website, goodhelpoperatorschool.com, for more information.