Landscape companies would not mow acres upon acres of grass or complete all their installations each season without service technicians in their own shop or nearby dealership. Those techs keep the industry running. On the equipment side, workforce is as much of a challenge as it is for any other segment of the green industry. 

The opportunity for equipment techs is among the best kept secrets around. Here’s a fast-track job that offers high school students lifelong careers. Consider the following:

• High school students with foundational skills can step into a lucrative career path as soon as they graduate and even work summer jobs while still in high school.
• They won’t have student loans hanging over their heads because companies that hire them pay for their training and often their tools.
• Everyone starts at the same level—but advancement can be quick. Determined techs with fewer than 10 years of experience are now pushing six-figure incomes.
• It’s a recession-proof industry that won’t go away.
• Techs can move on to careers in sales, marketing, management and training. There are many options once they build the foundation.
• It’s not a job for dummies. Techs need to think through problems and use the right technology to solve them.

Opportunities
Companies as diverse as a one-location shop to distributors serving multi-state regions tell the same story about jobs that are waiting. Will Giefer, owner of G&G Equipment in Frederick, estimates it takes 65 hours per year to maintain just one large commercial mower. His team keeps many local companies mowing. He offers incentives to his techs not only to help them become more efficient, but to put more dollars in their paychecks. Says Giefer, “the opportunities will never go away.”

Intermountain STIHL has 450 dealers in five states with about 175 of them in Colorado. “Any town of 1,000 or more on the Western Slope will likely have a STIHL tech,” says Seth Reed, STIHL’s marketing manager. From rural towns like Rangely and Craig to Front Range cities, there are jobs waiting now that high school grads could fill.

Mike Smith, trainer and recruiter, Honnen Equipment Company, says servicing large John Deere Equipment requires very specialized training and the company invests about $20,000 plus room and board to bring a tech through a two-year program. At the end, 100 percent job placement is guaranteed.

Ousting the myth
Marty Cirbo, recruiter with Wagner Equipment Co., notes the challenge industry-wide is to “dispel the myth that this is a low-level, low-tech job. We need to answer the question, ‘why would I want to be a mechanic for the rest of my life?’” Cirbo says all the pay, training and growth opportunities come down to “lifestyle” for today’s potential recruits. The perks, pay and career path relate more to parents— but what they mean for lifestyle is “key” for today’s young people. 

Building the pipeline
ALCC is partnering with Colorado Community College System (CCCS) to build another Career Pathway to prepare students for technician jobs upon graduation. In the summer, ALCC and CCCS will offer training for Colorado’s Ag/Ed teachers in skills they in turn can teach their students. The Compact Equipment Certificate will launch in selected high schools fall 2019.

This story originally appeared in the March/April issue of Colorado Green magazine.