Podcast Episode 85

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On the Road... Iowa LICA Farm Field Days

Setting the Next Generation Up for Success: One Man’s Quest to Train Equipment Operators… On the Road

Setting the Next Generation Up for Success: One Man’s Quest to Train Equipment Operators… On the Road

Episode 85 | 16 min

With Guest:

Roger Solberg, EOT Consultant/Trainer

This episode of The Water Table Podcast is On the Road at Iowa LICA’s Farm Field Days– We caught up with Roger Solberg, who’s using a heavy equipment simulator to train the next generation of operators. Find out how his childhood and time in the military made an impact on the work he does today. It’s a stimulating conversation about simulation… learn why it’s key to the agricultural water management industry and related fields.

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It’s one of the fields that you’ll never lose. Once you know how to run something, you’re not going to forget it... That’s what it’s all about. Showing these kids what’s out there for them, and what they can have.

— Roger Solberg

Guest Bio

Roger Solberg began his career in the construction industry in 1986 after graduating from the Northwest Iowa Technical College Heavy Equipment Program. In 1998, he began teaching Heavy Equipment Operation and Maintenance and obtained his Provisional Occupational Postsecondary Teacher Certification through the State of Iowa Educational Board. He is also certified to teach CDL, Forklift and OSHA Construction 10-Hour. Roger served as an Iowa Army National Guard soldier for 38 years, and received numerous awards, including the Purple Heart in Iraq and Combat Action Badge.

Jamie Duininck (00:02):
This is the Water Table.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
A chance to hear the agricultural side of these issues.

Speaker 6 (00:09):
A place for people to go find information and education.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Water management is just going to become even more critical into the future.

Jamie Duininck (00:17):
How misunderstood what we do is.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I would encourage people to open their minds and listen to this dialogue.

Jamie Duininck (00:31):
This week we’re taking the Water Table podcast on the road to Melbourne, Iowa. We will be visiting the Iowa LICA Farm and the Iowa LICA Field Day. Join us as we interview some great guests. Well, welcome back to the Water Table podcast. We’re back here on site at the Iowa LICA Farm, Melbourne, Iowa, and Roger Solberg is with me now, and Roger is the owner of… He’s a consultant with EOT, which is… EOT stands for what, Roger?

Roger Solberg (01:07):
Equipment Operator Training.

Jamie Duininck (01:08):
Okay. Equipment operator training. Really what you do, Roger, is you have virtual reality simulator or simulators-

Roger Solberg (01:16):
Yep. Got simulators, correct.

Jamie Duininck (01:18):
… That you work with, and you work with North Iowa Community College a lot and introducing younger generation to equipment and running equipment and what that’s like. So tell us a little bit about your… Let’s start with just about your simulators a little bit. How they work and…

Roger Solberg (01:33):
How the simulators work, they’re not going to make you an operator, but they are going to make you more comfortable when you get in a piece of equipment. All the controls, everything we use in the simulators is the same as a real machine. And what we do is take that fear factor out of students or take the fear factor out of the kids and grownups, whoever want to run heavy equipment. We try and take that fear factor out and the simulators is a way to do that. They get comfortable in there and they’re not wrecking nothing, and that’s why we use the simulators.

Jamie Duininck (02:04):
Yeah. Do you find that people that get into a simulator that they, not only do they take the fear away, but that they have a different appreciation for equipment when they’re done or they want to say, “Hey, I want to continue this more and more,” than somebody that wouldn’t have been in a simulator?

Roger Solberg (02:22):
Yeah, we’ve had great success working with the community colleges. We’ve been going to high schools with them and high school seniors and juniors come in and they got great appreciation for it because they’d never seen nothing like it before. So that’s why we try and bring the construction field in it. They’re a blue collar worker and we need blue collar workers and every contractor I’ve worked with need operators and need people to do it. So it’s one way to get their kids interested in it and get them out there and start working.

Jamie Duininck (02:53):
Yep, yep. And do you work with North Iowa Community College every day and during the school year, or how does that work?

Roger Solberg (03:01):
How it works is they got a schedule. We do a week long program. We usually do four or five of them a year. We get high school seniors out there. We get the 18-year-old kids out. And what we do for a week is we go through the OSHA standards, they get their OSHA 10 hour, they get their flaggers, they get some operation time, simulator time, seat time, and we really get them involved with wanting to be out here, wanting to do this kind of job and being in this field and they start working right away. So it’s a win-win for everyone.

Jamie Duininck (03:34):
Yeah. And do you get some feedback after the fact from people that have gone through the training and then jump in the cab of a dozer or a backhoe or something and how that prepared them for the job?

Roger Solberg (03:50):
Yeah, I get a lot of feedback from the younger guys. A lot of them are scared to jump in a piece of equipment and then they get in the simulator and they run it for a couple hours and it really improves their knowledge and it improves their understanding of what the machine can do and what it’s capable of doing. So yeah, I get great feedback.

Jamie Duininck (04:09):
Yeah, I think it’s interesting. People our age, yours and my age, I won’t say you’re the same age as me, but you’re probably younger, but we were around equipment more than the younger generation is now. We either grew up on a farm or we had friends that did, so we were able to run a tractor or whatever it might be, where it is really intimidating to someone that has never had that opportunity.

(04:36):
It’s not very, I think if you’re 10 or 11 years old and you jump in the cab of a tractor and drive it with your dad or grandpa, it’s more of a thrill than it is scary. And if you wait until you’re 20, it gets to be a lot more of fear there. And I think people, when you’re 22, you know how much that equipment costs and you don’t want to-

Roger Solberg (04:57):
Yeah, that’s the other thing we go over when I do my classes is the cost involved with it. Some of the younger generation and the younger people, they don’t understand. It costs money to move dirt and then it costs money to upkeep the equipment and the safety features are there for a reason and stuff like that. So that really is a big benefit towards the simulators also is they let the kids know what this piece of equipment costs.

Jamie Duininck (05:25):
So stepping back a little bit, Roger, how did you end up in this role and doing what you’re doing? What made you interested in it?

Roger Solberg (05:35):
Well, actually, I taught at community colleges for 20 years. I was in charge of kids. Every year we do projects and I was the instructor and at the same time I was in the military and I went to Iraq and I was in Iraq for a year. I was in the military for 38 years. And I was at the point in my life where I just got kind of, I don’t want to say burn out, but I just got tired of being in charge all the time. So I wanted to do something different.

(06:04):
LICA members, believe it or not, a couple of LICA members talked to me and some contractors called me and said, “We need you in the industry. We want you to get kids interested in this kind of construction field again, and this is what we want you to do. We want you to train kids and go out on your own and with the simulators, and that’s what we want you to do.” And I talked to my wife a little bit and my kids ’cause yeah, it’s important to my kids too, and I decided to do it, and that’s what I’ve been doing the last four years.

Jamie Duininck (06:35):
Yeah, that’s pretty neat. And you have a construction background and a tiling background from way back at the early part of your career, right?

Roger Solberg (06:44):
Yeah, it’s pretty much, I was that little kid in the sandbox playing with Tonka toys, dirt world’s always been what I know and what I do. And yeah, I got the experience. I’ve worked for contractors, both tiling contractors and dirt moving contractors. And the teaching part helped, too. I was at the community colleges for a while, and so I got a lot of background. And one of the things I always want to mention when people ask me why I do what I do is my dad was very knowledgeable. He was a school teacher all his life, and he always told me, he says, “You got all that knowledge, what you going to do with it? ‘Cause you can’t do nothing when you’re passed away.” So I always told myself that the knowledge I have and if I can ever help anybody, I want to be able to help kids and get kids back into the industry. So that’s kind of where I got where I’m at.

Jamie Duininck (07:35):
So that’s a good segue to the question of how would you approach a kid that’s 18, 19 years old and really thinks that he should go get a four-year degree, but doesn’t know what they want to do with their career, doesn’t have a passion for anything, and I know you have a passion for construction and for equipment, and now you have this company that can really share with them. How would you approach a situation like that and talk to a kid?

Roger Solberg (08:06):
I kind of approach it like I did my own sons. I taught them how to run skid loaders and mini excavators. We live on an acreage, but we don’t farm. I’m a city slicker or a city guy or a small town guy, but I taught them how to run skid loaders and excavators, and they actually paid for their own college. They both went to college or all three of them went to college and they paid for their college. They don’t have student grants or student loans or anything like that, and it’s something they can carry with them the rest of their life.

(08:35):
So a couple of them went into teaching or education. Well, in the summertime, they can make extra money going out and running equipment. It’s one of them fields, and it’s one of them deals that you’ll never lose once you know how to do something and once you know how to run something, you’re not going to forget it and you can make extra money by doing it. So I’m not going to talk negative about four year colleges. I always try to talk positive, but I also want the kids to understand that there’s a place for you if you don’t want to go to a four-year college. I think that’s real important to society and industry right now to make sure we get it across.

Jamie Duininck (09:11):
I actually didn’t really expect that answer, and I think it’s a really good one from the standpoint of there are kids that go to school and go to a four-year school and come out and just like, my words now, but why did I do that? Because I got all this debt and I still don’t really know what I want to do. And then we know these kids that have known all along, “I want to farm or I want to run equipment.” And they start at 18 and they’re financially independent by the time they would’ve got out of college.

(09:43):
But there is a happy medium there, too. And that’s kind of what you’re saying. And there is a lot of opportunity. Everybody in the trades and in construction is looking for help. And there’s so much opportunity, even for somebody that might want to teach and has a passion for teaching and learning and teaching kids, there still is a real opportunity for them during the summer months to make a lot of money and to continue to learn and hone their skills and whether it’s running equipment or working on a construction crew.

Roger Solberg (10:23):
Right. The other very, very smart thing my father did before he passed away, he says, “Why do you do what you do?” And he gave me the best answer I ever heard and then… You got to enjoy what you’re doing in life. If you’re just going to a contractor or you’re just going to a job just because of the money, you’re going to be the one that’s going to be late every morning. You’re going to be the one that really doesn’t care about the company.

(10:52):
Where if you’re doing something you enjoy, you’re always going to be early and you’re always going to want to be the best at it, so you’re going to practice at it. So a lot of the younger generations are worried about money and stuff, but it shouldn’t be. It should be doing something, getting into something you enjoy in life ’cause that’s what’s going to make your life.

Jamie Duininck (11:10):
Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. And I was just reading something about uncertainty and how so many people, but especially younger people have a hard time managing uncertainty. They want an answer to everything, which then drives them away from doing what they want do or drives them away from their passions because they aren’t necessarily certain about, “Am I going to get a steady paycheck? Am I going to this,” kind of thing? And those that can live a little bit in uncertainty and be comfortable with it usually are happier people.

Roger Solberg (11:41):
Right. Yep.

Jamie Duininck (11:43):
Well, tell me a little bit more about the simulators. They’re portable as far as you can move around the country. You’re here at the Iowa LICA Field Day. I’m giving people an opportunity to try them out, which I’m sure has been fun for people and fun for you, but where else do you go? Do you have other opportunities to bring them places?

Roger Solberg (12:03):
Yeah, I also bring them to Minnesota. I’ve been there a couple times, a couple contractors. Minnesota has brought them to high schools because they were short on help and trying to find that one employee that can actually get along with it. I’ve been to South Dakota also, so I kind of run around Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota. I think two years ago I went to 90 high schools in Iowa.

Jamie Duininck (12:27):
Really?

Roger Solberg (12:28):
All around Dubuque, the community college sponsored it. So yeah, I believe I went to 90 high schools. I had probably a hundred eighty, a hundred eighty-nine student kids come through. And that’s what it’s all about, showing these kids what’s out there for them and what they can have, because I don’t think anybody really tries to sell the construction field or the heavy equipment operation field.

Jamie Duininck (12:55):
Have you had an opportunity to work directly for a contractor that has said, “Hey, go into our… I’m going to pay to have you go into our local school because that could be an opportunity for me to hire some kids out of there.”

Roger Solberg (13:08):
Yes. I’ve done that many of times. I got many contractors I go and see. I do their OSHA safety and I do their MSHA safety, and usually they call me and say, “Hey, bring the simulators. We’re going to have high school kids here.” And they pick that up and stuff because industry owners and owners and companies, they understand what’s going on right now and they need workers. And this is one great way of doing it, is bringing it in there and finding that one kid that might sit in the backseat and then all of a sudden you get him out of the simulator and he’s really actually pretty good.

(13:40):
So yeah, I’ve been going to a lot of high schools trying to get the word out. That’s my passion. This is my passion. I want everybody to know if there’s any questions they have, they can call me or I’m going to be out front type guy.

Jamie Duininck (13:54):
Yep. Well, we’ll make sure we share your information and how to get ahold of you on this podcast. And the notes, as many of our listeners are contractors are involved in the industry and we all know how hard it is in pretty much every industry right now to find people to work, so.

Roger Solberg (14:16):
Yeah, whatever we can do to make it easier for them, we’re all going to need them and we’re not going to be around forever, so we got to have someone fill our shoes, so to speak.

Jamie Duininck (14:24):
Yep. Yep. Good. And you’ve been on the Iowa LICA Farm here for, this is your fourth year at the field day?

Roger Solberg (14:33):
I believe third year.

Jamie Duininck (14:34):
Third year at the field day. And have you had an opportunity to introduce, is it more people that are ready around equipment that just want to try it out? Or have you had an opportunity here too to introduce new people to the equipment, people that haven’t been involved in-

Roger Solberg (14:52):
Yeah, I’ve had a lot of the contractors would bring their family members in that haven’t ran a lot of equipment. So yeah, there’s been a mixture of both. And then some of the bigger contractors that are out here today, they’ve come in and we’ve talked quite a bit about what I can do for them, and they’re actually thinking about sponsoring high schools and going to high schools with them and stuff like that. So it’s been a great day for talking to contractors.

Jamie Duininck (15:18):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, Roger, appreciate you joining me on the Water Table today. We’ll be sure to promote what you’re doing for our industry. Thank you. Thank you for your service to our country, and thanks for joining the Water Table today.

Roger Solberg (15:34):
You bet. Well, thank you for having me here.

Jamie Duininck (15:35):
Well, thanks for listening to this episode. I have so much fun recording these. I hope you have as much fun listening as I do recording. These episodes are available on all major podcast platforms as well as YouTube. So find them and download them when you can. Thanks for joining us.

Podcast Episode 85

Setting the Next Generation Up for Success: One Man’s Quest to Train Equipment Operators… On the Road

Episode 85 | 16 min

With Guest:

Listen Now

Guest Bio

Transcript

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Podcast Episode 85

Setting the Next Generation Up for Success: One Man’s Quest to Train Equipment Operators… On the Road

Episode 85 | 16 min

With Guest:

Listen Now

Also Available On

Guest Bio

Transcript

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