While some join a crane training institute right out of high school, for others, like James Ingram, the path to the sector wasn’t a straight line. After spending four years driving 18-wheelers, he decided to use his Class 1 driver’s license and work experience to change careers, signing up for the International Union of Operating Engineers (IOUE) Local 721’s eight-week mobile crane training course in Nova Scotia.
“I wanted to use my Class 1 license that I had gotten, and that’s what led me to cranes,” Ingram said. “The course is only eight weeks, so that made sense for me. I went and took the course and got hired right out of school.”
In December 2023, Ingram was hired as an apprentice at A.W. Leil Cranes & Equipment in Dartmouth, N.S. Currently in the second of four blocks of his apprenticeship, Ingram expects a growing demand for mobile crane operators as Halifax’s population continues to increase.
“I’d say what got me into cranes was the large demand coming soon in our city,” he said. “There’s pretty good job security.”
Entering the crane sector as a second career choice is not an unusual path. Ralf Notheis, manager of the Bigfoot Crane Academy in Abbotsford, B.C., also jumped into the sector as a second career more than 20 years ago. He was working logging road construction as a heavy equipment operator in the late 1990s. When sawmills started shutting down, the idea of joining the crane sector popped into his head.
“I liked operating heavy equipment, and I was listening to my VHF radio in my truck and heard a conversation about cranes. I thought, ‘this actually sounds pretty cool,’” he recalled. “The operators are paid well, and you’re operating heavy equipment, not stuck in some logging camp in the middle of nowhere, so I started pursuing that.”
In 2000, Notheis decided to move to B.C.’s Lower Mainland to build up his apprenticeship hours as a crane operator for the construction of the Millennium Line SkyTrain, which transports passengers from East Vancouver to Burnaby, Port Moody and Coquitlam.
Although he was able to find work on a busy project, it almost didn’t work out due to being partnered with the wrong journeyperson. Fortunately for Notheis, he ended up being partnered with another journeyman shortly afterwards, and that changed everything.
“The next guy I had was amazing – Doug Delaney was his name, and he basically told me, ‘I’m going to get some brushes, some paint and some sandpaper, and I’m going to clean the crane and paint everything, and you’re going to run it every day, all day long,’” he said.
Notheis quickly earned his journeyman ticket by 2002. He operated cranes until 2009, when he accepted a position as an operations manager for a crane rental company. Since 2015, he has been the lead trainer for the Bigfoot Crane Academy, which offers training for all crane types across Western Canada and crane operator certification courses at their Abbotsford and Agassiz, B.C. training centers.
Apprenticeship training has changed for the better since Notheis joined the sector: “The whole thing is a lot better now,” he said. “Back then, you were an indentured apprentice, and you were basically at the mercy of the journeymen. Things have changed now, where an apprentice can operate the crane with indirect supervision.”
While this does not apply to working on critical lifts, apprentices are able to gain hours operating cranes for more standard lifts, once they follow the entire training process to the point where they are comfortable operating independently, Notheis explained.
“Once enrolled in a thorough training program, apprentices can operate with indirect supervision using a ‘Qualified Supervision Plan’ that includes the name and phone number of a qualified supervisor they can call if they have any questions. It’s no longer the whole thing where you’re standing beside the crane, wishing you could be running it. Now the apprentices are getting a lot more hours towards their apprenticeships. I know it’s not like that everywhere […] but I think the whole process has come a long way,” he said.
Training options
A range of options should be considered in looking at a crane operator training courses, as the amount of schooling and tuition varies from province to province.
“Newfoundland’s [IUOE] program is 25 weeks, Nova Scotia’s is eight weeks, and then they are six to eight weeks throughout other parts of the country. Newfoundland is the longest because it does the 25 weeks upfront, which is very unique, because every other province has blocks that they complete,” explained Lorna Harnum, international representative, Canadian Region, for the IUOE.
The IUOE has eight training institutes across Canada:
- IUOE, Local 904, OEC (Newfoundland and Labrador)
- IUOE, Local 721, OETINS (Nova Scotia)
- IUOE, Local 946 (New Brunswick)
- IUOE, Local 793, OETIO (Ontario)
- IUOE, Local 987, OETIM (Manitoba)
- IUOE, Local 870 (Saskatchewan)
- IUOE, Local 955 (Alberta)
- IUOE, Local 115 (British Columbia)
IUOE training ranges in cost from province to province, with tuition varying from $9,500 to $25,424.
Funding continues to be a challenge not just for people who want to enter a training program, but also for apprentices, said Harnum. For more than a decade, the federal government has offered the Apprenticeship Incentive Grant (AIG); a taxable cash grant of $1,000 per year or level, for a lifetime maximum amount of $2,000 per person. Unfortunately, the AIG ends on March 31, 2025, with applications not accepted after this date.
“It was very helpful for apprentices, because apprentices are not making the wage that a journeyperson would make,” she said. “It’s always helpful in getting them the tools that they need for work.”
Another challenge in all provinces (except for Newfoundland) is the income inconsistencies created by the block training format.
“An individual will go out to work for X amount of hours, and then they have to come back for Block Two, so now they have to be laid off from their employment. That’s a huge challenge: these individuals are not always young teenagers with no responsibilities, we have adults who have mortgages and car payments and families,” said Harnum.
Doing your research
Harnum said it’s vital that people do their research before signing up for training with any institute.
“I work with the operating engineers, and we have training facilities across Canada, from Newfoundland to B.C. and everywhere in between. We train for the industry, but there are some colleges that train for profit,” she said. “You have to research the school that you want to attend and find out how much seat time you actually get, which will vary within each province.”
Harnum suggests potential apprentices speak to active operators within the sector to learn more about their workplace and training options, as well as reach out to their local union office.
“Search out a union office that dispatches and represents mobile crane operators. I would suggest they go speak to crane employers and find out what the job is all about,” she said.
Another aspect of being a mobile crane operator that is occasionally overlooked is the amount of travel it can require.
“Most of the time, you are either out in another part of Canada or somewhere in the world. You’re not home every night. If you’re not prepared to be mobile, it’s not the career for you,” Harnum said.
All training institutes require a standard full driver’s license as a minimum to enter a crane operator program, and most require a Class 3 or Class 1 license upon graduation. A Class 1 license allows operators to haul the mobile cranes to worksites. Ingram says a Class 1 driver’s license and experience driving an 18-wheeler would be advantageous for all apprentices to have.
“There’s a few apprentices I’ve seen where they don’t know how to drive a truck, and that puts them in a bad position,” he said. “If you don’t have any trucking experience, you’re going right into one of the harder trucking jobs around, because you’re always going to crazy locations and hauling heavy weights. I would suggest telling apprentices to go do trucking for at least a year.”
Trades transitions
During his time running the Bigfoot Crane Academy, Notheis has had many journeypeople active in other trades call him looking to become crane operators.
“I get a lot of tradespeople calling me in their fifties and sixties. They picked trades that are hard on the body, and there are a lot of people who get injured or just worn out, and then they sometimes are lucky enough to be retrained or work sponsored by WorkSafeBC,” Notheis said.
Earning a living as a crane operator has significantly less impact on one’s body than many other construction trades, while offering a similar income.
“Crane operator is a no-brainer. You’re still in construction, you kind of understand how the whole process works, and you’re just learning how to operate the machine safely. You can go back to making a six-figure income, and you can be 75 years old,” Notheis said.
Building up the future
After completing their 5,400 hours as an apprentice, the Red Seal exam can be written to become a journeyperson. Harnum says it’s important that employers always focus on bringing more apprentices into the pipeline to replace those that graduate.
“Employers sometimes still have the thought that an apprentice costs them money, but it doesn’t,” Harnum said. “If we don’t hire apprentices, what’s going to happen when a crane operator decides to retire? We’re going to have a skills gap. We always have to keep that in mind: people are retiring, and we need to make sure that we have somebody to sit in that seat.”
While becoming a crane operator is well-paying and secure, Notheis noted it also creates opportunities for career advancement down the line should an operator decide to take on a different role.
“If there are 100 crane operators, then there’s 100 people behind them doing other parts of that job, before that crane is able to go to the job site. You’ve got operations managers, service coordinators, all kinds of technical people – there’s no end to it,” he said.
