EMCC offering free of charge industrial driving license programs

BANGOR, Maine — Instructors from Northern Maine Community University in Presque Isle made their way south to Bangor to practice the subsequent wave of truck motorists. 

These instructors brought their totally free professional driver’s license program to Japanese Maine Group Higher education for the summer months. 

The system, an eight-week software that prepares pupils to get paid a Course A driving license, entails the very first couple months being invested in the classroom. Dennis Dyer is the administrator for the method at NMCC. 

“The past 5 weeks we are on the vary undertaking parallel parking, alley docking, all that type of things and on the road also, [to] enable them get all set for their tests,” Dyer claimed.

The first session started off Monday, and the subsequent two sessions will start off as shortly as the previous one finishes. This method is predicted to conclude at EMCC in September.

The class is able to be made available for no cost many thanks to the Harold Alfond Improvement for Maine’s Workforce Grant. 

“I believe most likely the ordinary charge is at least like $7,000-8,000 if not much more, so the actuality that we can provide this for free allows a ton of individuals,” Dyer reported.

Orrington resident Darnell Flowers is a person of the students in the class. Bouquets stated he previously has his Course B license but was searching into schooling programs to get his Course A license when he arrived across this chance.

“Owning this system and using gain of this correct here that’s becoming offered, it is really likely to catapult me and acquire me in which I’m looking to go,” Flowers stated.

Avram Burg of Van Buren made the decision to go after this course just after not long ago being laid off from a logging organization throughout mud year.

“Doing the job in the woods, I saw the log vehicles and noticed what they do. And I usually assumed, ‘You know, that’s type of a amazing thing to do,'” Burg stated.

There’s a large range of starting salaries relying on which business truck driving path just one could go after. 

“It ranged anyplace from, I’ve viewed up to $100,000 a calendar year down to $60,000. The most affordable I have seen is $45,000,” Burg said.

According to ziprecruiter.com, the ordinary annually CDL truck driver income in 2022 in Maine is $44,245. Corporations like Walmart, nevertheless, are trying to battle their scarcity of motorists by offering double median salaries, up to $110,000 for every yr, in accordance to NBC Information.

Liz Russell, vice president of EMCC’s tutorial affairs and soon to be president of the school, said this is all part of their effort and hard work to get ready learners for a amount of Maine’s workforces that are in will need of staff. 

“We have a amount of other absolutely free applications that are available to people today who desire to enter new fields these as health-related assisting, surgical know-how, phlebotomy, electricians, and these types of points,” Russell reported.

“In buy for me to go to the next chapter, this ideal below is the beginning of my chapter,” Bouquets mentioned.

For additional details about the workforce plans available at EMCC, click on listed here.

To sign-up for the subsequent CDL program at EMCC and to find out far more, click here.