Durfee is buying two construction vehicles. Students will be the ones driving them.
FALL RIVER — Students in B.M.C. Durfee High School’s construction program will soon be able to get experience on two different construction vehicles, thanks to a grant for nearly half a million dollars that will go toward purchasing them for the school.
“It’s gonna increase their pay, increase their marketability and increase their opportunities,” said Cindy Sylvia, the school’s director of Career, Vocational and Technical Education.
Durfee’s construction craft laborer program within the CTE department recently won $476,000 through the Massachusetts Skills Capital Grant Program, run by the state’s Workforce Skills Cabinet.
The money will go toward buying two pieces of heavy equipment for the program: a skid-steer, often used for digger and lifting heavy loads, and a telehandler, used to lift material like pipes and beams far overhead.
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Both pieces of equipment have their own license available. Someone must be 18 to apply for the license and at least 16 to train in using one, under a licensed instructor.
The grant will also pay for a virtual reality program that will allow younger students to train in how to use the equipment using virtual reality goggles before they’re even old enough to get in the driver’s seat.
“When they’re ready, then we know that we can put them in the machine,” Sylvia said. “It’s unreal.”
Workers who are already licensed to use this equipment when they enter the Laborers’ Union are in high demand and earn higher pay, Sylvia said.
“It’s going to absolutely pay incredible dividends for our students and get them truly ready for the construction industry if that’s what they’re pursing,” she said.
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Sylvia wrote the grant, but she said program leader Carlton Medeiros was instrumental in making their application successful, doing things like obtaining a letter from the Laborers’ Union saying it was a high demand area, getting support from local construction companies and finding research on workforce development.
She said winning a grant of this size is a big honor, especially for CTE program in a traditional high school.
“For a comprehensive high school like Durfee High School to get that grant, it really speaks volumes,” she said.
Audrey Cooney can be reached at acooney@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Durfee buying construction vehicles for students to learn to drive
