Next Generation in Trucking Association

  by:  Dylan Tinney, Partnerships, JOBehaviors “What do you want to be when you grow up? What’s your plan after school?” For high school students who aren’t sure of their next step, these questions can cause anxiety. The pressure is on from adults at home and at school. But the pressure comes with few tools that actually help students discover what career paths will bring them success and fulfillment. Without a predictive tool, the path to finding a student’s calling in life can be long and winding. JOBehaviors Shows Students which Careers will Deliver Success and Fulfillment Specifically for Them Enter JOBehaviors predictive career assessments. The laser-focused, online assessments show students in about 10 minutes how likely they are to find success and fulfillment in a specific career, including a variety in trucking and transportation. Unlike anything else on the market, JOBehaviors assessments are behaviorally-engineered to determine whether students will naturally seek

      Truck drivers are an essential part of what keeps America moving. Nearly every product that is sold and bought has been transported at some point via a commercial truck.  Despite the big demand for experienced truckers, there is a nation-wide shortage of people willing to take charge behind the wheel. To fill that gap, Hopkinsville Community College (HCC) offers truck driver training, as a certificate program.   The intent is to train students with little to no commercial driving experience and prepare them for a high-demand job.   The 4-week, entry-level course prepares students for the trucking industry. It teaches students to drive tractor trailer trucks, apply their knowledge of commercial driving regulations, prepare receipts for loads, maintain truck logs in accordance with state and federal guidelines, inspect the truck and equipment as well as load and unload. Most importantly, the program teaches students how to be safe and reliable drivers. The course is designed to

      Helping the next generation and creating a skilled workforce is something on the forefront of everyone's minds in skilled trades.  Boyd CAT was founded in 1913 and they have created a robust training and career program to train young people committed to working for them called Think Big. The Think Big program is a heavy equipment technical training program where students attend Illinois Central College (ICC).   The Think Big program involves rotating semesters of school work at ICC and in-person hands-on training at Boyd CAT for two years.   During these two years, Think Big program students learn to work on Caterpillar equipment and engines as well as take general classes of math, science and English.  During the hands-on training semesters, the Think Big students are working at their home Boyd CAT branch where they get to help in the shop and put the skills they have learned to work while also completing an internship checklist for ICC.   Students are assigned their own wor