11/12/18

Technical Training Grants offer benefits to employees and rental businesses

At Interstate 80 Forklift in Vacaville, Calif., Michelle Strand, president, needed to hire another technician to keep up with demand.

“Our goal was to hire a veteran, so we attended a job fair at our local Air Force base. Most of the veterans we talked with had working experience as a technician, but not many had experience working on heavy construction equipment. We knew from the start that we would need to devote a lot of time to their training,” she says.

After she found a veteran who would be a good fit for her company, she hired him and began on-the-job training. After eight months, “we felt it was time to strengthen his foundation skills and send him to Skytrak Service Training offered by JLG University. This is where the Technical Training Grant from the ARA Foundation came in and really helped offset that cost. It was perfect timing,” says Strand, who applied for and received the grant during the third-quarter distribution.

While she knew the grant would help her pay for that important technical training, she never anticipated the added value it would give her employee and her business.

“It was so great. He came back and was so grateful to us for sending him to the class. He said he learned so much and it really connected all of the dots for him. He mentioned how much he was looking forward to attending the next class so he could take his skills to the next level. It was rewarding to hear that. It shows how much this grant helped us support our employee, which, in turn, is an investment in our company’s future. He has come back more excited, with more energy and more knowledge. As he grows and advances in his skills, that will help us be a better rental and service operation,” Strand says.

Chris Wright, president of House of Rental, Skokie, Ill., also benefited from a grant during the third-quarter distribution. Always a strong proponent of employee training, he says, “It’s nice that the ARA Foundation does reimbursements on technical training. That means we can send our employees to more training or more expensive technical training.”

Thanks to receiving a Technical Training Grant, Wright’s employee was able to attend aerial lift operator and instructor training from Skyjack.

“He was offered in-depth, two-day, hands-on and classroom training. Now he has come back and has given all of our employees the current specifications and how-tos of every piece of lift equipment that we own. It makes us more knowledgeable, more competitive and safer,” Wright says.

In essence, the grant and the training provided his company “three levels of training,” Wright says. “Our employee has been trained and now trains our other employees. They, in turn, train our customers. It makes our business a better rental company.”

Strand and Wright are just two of the many rental operators who have benefited by applying for and receiving these grants.

Learn how these grants can help your operation. Go to ARAfoundation.com/go/TechGrants. Don’t delay. To be eligible for the fourth-quarter distribution, rental business owners must apply by the Dec. 31, 2018, deadline.

For questions, contact Joann Lay at 800-334-2177, ext. 265, or joann.lay@ararental.org.

An official publication of the American Rental Association.
Produced by Rental Management Group. Copyright © 2018 Rental Pulse all rights reserved
At Interstate 80 Forklift in Vacaville, Calif., Michelle Strand, president, needed to hire another technician to keep up with demand.

“Our goal was to hire a veteran, so we attended a job fair at our local Air Force base. Most of the veterans we talked with had working experience as a technician, but not many had experience working on heavy construction equipment. We knew from the start that we would need to devote a lot of time to their training,” she says.

After she found a veteran who would be a good fit for her company, she hired him and began on-the-job training. After eight months, “we felt it was time to strengthen his foundation skills and send him to Skytrak Service Training offered by JLG University. This is where the Technical Training Grant from the ARA Foundation came in and really helped offset that cost. It was perfect timing,” says Strand, who applied for and received the grant during the third-quarter distribution.

While she knew the grant would help her pay for that important technical training, she never anticipated the added value it would give her employee and her business.

“It was so great. He came back and was so grateful to us for sending him to the class. He said he learned so much and it really connected all of the dots for him. He mentioned how much he was looking forward to attending the next class so he could take his skills to the next level. It was rewarding to hear that. It shows how much this grant helped us support our employee, which, in turn, is an investment in our company’s future. He has come back more excited, with more energy and more knowledge. As he grows and advances in his skills, that will help us be a better rental and service operation,” Strand says.

Chris Wright, president of House of Rental, Skokie, Ill., also benefited from a grant during the third-quarter distribution. Always a strong proponent of employee training, he says, “It’s nice that the ARA Foundation does reimbursements on technical training. That means we can send our employees to more training or more expensive technical training.”

Thanks to receiving a Technical Training Grant, Wright’s employee was able to attend aerial lift operator and instructor training from Skyjack.

“He was offered in-depth, two-day, hands-on and classroom training. Now he has come back and has given all of our employees the current specifications and how-tos of every piece of lift equipment that we own. It makes us more knowledgeable, more competitive and safer,” Wright says.

In essence, the grant and the training provided his company “three levels of training,” Wright says. “Our employee has been trained and now trains our other employees. They, in turn, train our customers. It makes our business a better rental company.”

Strand and Wright are just two of the many rental operators who have benefited by applying for and receiving these grants.

Learn how these grants can help your operation. Go to ARAfoundation.com/go/TechGrants. Don’t delay. To be eligible for the fourth-quarter distribution, rental business owners must apply by the Dec. 31, 2018, deadline.

For questions, contact Joann Lay at 800-334-2177, ext. 265, or joann.lay@ararental.org.

An official publication of the American Rental Association.
Produced by Rental Management Group. Copyright © 2018 Rental Pulse all rights reserved

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