Ridgefield, WA

Trained Diesel Technicians are a valuable resource, as VFI well knows. It is a high demand field that requires ever-increasing skills and technical know-how. We are proud to be partnering with Centralia College to help students join this fast-paced and growing field. Clint O’Neill, Pacific Truck Center’s training manager based in Ridgefield, decided to get more involved with the college. He is sponsoring their Diesel Technician Training program within Freightliner’s ARC program, as well as Freightliner’s Get Ahead program. Get Ahead offers industry training (online and free of charge) to diesel training schools, in collaboration with Daimler Trucks North America and network service locations, such as VFI.

“The idea here is to help them attract more students from a wider demographic. They have roughly 50 students currently enrolled. The plan is to have their top four year students go through the Get Ahead program,” said Clint O’Neill. Those four students would receive free ILT training from Clint at VFI’s Corporate Training Center on the Ridgefield campus. “This would allow me time to assess their skills as well as provide them the certificates needed for future employment with Daimler products.” Clint anticipates the first students to join the project during the 2016 fall term.

Clint has his eye on developing such training programs with other schools. “With the growing needs for a ‘Grow your own’ tech approach due to our fast growing company, I felt it was time to start thinking outside the box,” said Clint. “My hope is we can start this process at our local Diesel programs to increase our retention of a higher level trained apprentice by recruiting locally.”

For more information on the Centralia College training course, visit their website. If your diesel school might be interested in partnering with VFI under the Get Ahead program, please contact Clint O’Neill at 360.887.7540.