Operating Engineer - Summer 2013

Enhanced Training Meets Industry’s Needs in Atlantic Canada
Local 904 member Shannon Collier gets some quality time on
the OEC’s new crane simulator.
Local 904’s Operating Engineers College (OEC)
in Holyrood, Newfoundland has expanded its Tower Crane
Operating Program, featuring a virtual crane simulator for
students to train on. The OEC plans to use this simulationbased
training along with their actual 6 Ton Potain MD125B
tower crane to produce the large number of crane operators
that will be required to construct the $14 billion ExxonMobil
Hebron project, a concrete gravity-based oil platform
currently under construction in Bull Arm, Newfoundland.
Twenty years ago, OEC offered its first tower crane
program, to train operators to work on a similar offshore oil
site, the Hibernia project. In a partnership with the Hebron
Project and the Provincial Government, OEC is offering a
specialized 12-week Tower Crane Program to train tower
crane operators for the current project
“The Operating Engineers College provides operators
with the opportunity to upgrade and enhance their skills, and
to produce an on-going supply of apprentices and certified
journeypersons to the construction industry. Now, because
of the strong partnership that exists between the Provincial
Government, the college, Operating Engineers Local 904 and
industry, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will have the
opportunity to avail of the only tower crane program offered
in Atlantic Canada,” said Lorna Harnum, Administrator for
the OEC.
Although some of the 1992 graduates are employed on
the Hebron Project, there was still an identified need to
train more tower crane operators. After several months
of planning, the first 12-week Tower Crane Program began
on March 18. All 11 graduates from that class are currently
employed on the Hebron project.
That class also made some history when Jackie Smith,
Local 904 member from Chance Cove, became the first
female Red Seal tower crane operator in the province.
OEC currently has eight students enrolled in the second
12-week tower crane program, with a graduation date
scheduled for August 30, 2013.
“By utilizing both the tower crane simulator and the
actual tower crane, we are seeing amazing results from our
students in the practical component of the program. The
simulator certainly prepares the students long before they sit
in the seat of the tower. Students can’t believe how realistic
the simulator really is,” Harnum said.
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