Answer these questions if you are considering a career in technical repair: Do you takes things apart to figure out how they work? Do you like to work with machines as much or even more than people? Are you a hands-on learner? If so, then good news, a career as a 310T Truck and Coach Technician might be right for you!

Truck & Coach Technicians (trade code 310T) are responsible to service, repair, overhaul, diagnose and inspect motor coaches, heavy trucks and truck-trailers. This job entails detecting and diagnosing problems in various parts of a mechanical system including the brakes, ignition and suspension systems.

how do you become a 310T?
There are a few different ways to go about becoming a 310T, but the simplest is through OYAP - the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program. OYAP provides opportunities to students to participate in an apprenticeship occupation while enrolled in a secondary school program leading to an Ontario Secondary School Diploma. The requirements to become a 310T consist of completing 6720 hours of apprenticeship, 6000 hours on-job training, as well as three 8-week blocks of training in-school. After this you are required to successfully pass a written examination for your certificate of qualification .

The skills of this trade include repairing, testing and maintaining trucks, coaches and other heavy motorized vehicles. The job involves working mostly independently on repairs while working on site with a team of similarly trained professionals . A typical day consists of working on one or several repairs throughout the day that come in as work orders. Each repair would be a different and unique experience where the tools and knowledge would differ case-by-case.

As an alternative to OYAP, a trade courses and certificate of apprenticeship can be acquired from a number of Ontario colleges including Mohawk, Conestoga and Fanshawe, among others. A career as a 310T offers a high salary, plenty of potential for career advancement and a chance for on-the-job learning.

why become a 310T?
Apart from being one of the most in-demand trade jobs in Canada, choosing a career as a Truck and Coach Technician can be very rewarding. On average, a certified 310T can expect to make $26 an hour, but along with this there are other incentives on site including reaching a sales goal for bonuses and overtime pay.

The skills you learn to become a 310T are also very applicable in other similar fields including Heavy Equipment, Aircraft Maintenance and Industrial Maintenance.

what can you expect as a 310T?
Working as a Truck and Coach Technician requires finely tuned critical thinking skills. You are required to make assessments and decisions in a fairly short amount of time. Each repair you do may use different diagnostics tools and it is up to you to find out where the problem is, what the problem is and how to fix it. Typically you'll be given a few hours for a work order but in some cases it can be bumped up to over a day. If you like a challenge and this all sounds like a good fit for you, maybe a 310T apprenticeship is the way to go!

When my eldest son turned 12, we took him to the barber and he left shorn of his long locks with a short, short (did I say short?) buzz cut. Exactly four days after his birthday we marched to our local Army Cadet Corps and he spent one night a week at the Armoury for nearly the next seven years of his life.

The benefits of Army Cadets were numerous. My son, who used to be too shy to request crickets for his lizard at the local pet store, was soon collecting the most money for the Legion Veterans selling poppies for Remembrance Day. He was participating in parades, earning star levels, rising through the ranks from Private to Warrant Officer, instructing junior Cadets at various star levels and in drill, achieving his National Star Certification, Wilderness First Aid, Belaying proficiency, Duke of Ed, map and compass...

In the summer, my son was spending six weeks at Expedition training camp at the Forces base in Borden, and one summer he was flown out for the once-in-a-lifetime experience of the Rocky Mountain Cadet Summer Training Centre. The Cadets experienced a new expedition each week: hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, white-water canoeing or kayaking, mountain climbing and glacier climbing (whew! just listing the activities is exhausting, never mind doing them at high altitude!). My son's favourite experience was glacier climbing with its 360° view from the top of the mountain. In his own poetic words (okay, granted they were written for an English assignment, not at his own initiative!), "The mountains were like frozen waves in an endless ocean that drown you in their beauty." And that's not all, other Army Cadet summer camps focus on Basic Training, Drill and Ceremonial and Marksmanship. The Sea and Air Cadet summer camps offer everything from Seamanship or Aviation to Survival (click here for more). A few of our Corps' Army Cadets followed the elite para training route and earned their parachutist wings jumping from airplanes. A well-earned distinction for theses Cadets who have gone on to become Reservists of the Canadian Forces while they attend university.

And that's my segue into speaking of the incredible military co-op program that exists for high school students (as I did not intend to just write about my son's experience as an Army Cadet!). At age 17, some Cadets leave their Corps and join the Reservists. As an alternative, through this co-op program, high school students can earn 2 co-op credits, 1 phys-ed credit and 1 math, English or other credit over a semester. Plus they are on their way to earning a SHSM (Specialist High Skills Major) in Justice, Community Safety and Emergency Services.

If a student is accepted into the Forces co-op, a whole semester is spent at their participating Armoury. In Hamilton it's with the Primary Reserves for the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (the RHLIs or "the Rileys") or the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders ("the Argylls" - who incidentally have a real badger head for their "sporran" or waist pouch with their kilt... I've seen it!).

As Reservists, students earn approximately $45 per half day or $90 per full day for their training. Additionally, they may choose this as a part-time job for life... and if they do decide to further their education after high school, they  receive money towards their tuition! Sound like a grand opportunity? Borrowing the cautionary words of one of my colleagues (he spent 5 years in cadets and 8 years in the Forces), "The army taught me a lot. I guess my feeling is that if a kid has an ambition to do it, it is good to support them in that, but it is also good to make sure they have an opportunity to see that there is always more than one path to take."

The application process for this military co-op program is quite rigorous and can take up to 3 or 4 months. It includes going to your school's guidance office, filling out applications, including the online Forces app, a PT test, practicing and writing an aptitude test and more (click here for a "how to" in the Halton/Hamilton area). Before going ahead with applying, you will want to put more research into the Primary Reserves and the expectations of you as a Reservist (click here for more information) and consider attending an information night (contact your local Reserves to find out if they support this co-op program and have an event planned for students and parents/guardians).

The decision to join the Forces or the Reserves is a big one. This co-op program allows students the opportunity to have a hands-on experience in the military that they may or may not choose to pursue after high school. In the words of another friend of mine who was a Reservist for 9 years (4 in school and 5 in service), "I think most young men [and some young women!] think about the military at some point. In retrospect, I don't regret it because it allowed me to learn a bunch about myself and about society... and remember: the vast majority of people that join the forces do so because they want to make things better in the world and the military seems to offer this chance. So this desire to join is probably coming from the right place."