IC Bus, a division of Navistar, announced it will hold four sessions of training for school bus technicians this year, two in June and two in July.
The last session actually begins July 29 and ends on Aug. 2. The other sessions are June 10-14, June 24-28 and July 8-12. All four are held at the IC Bus plant in Tulsa, Okla.
John Thompson, director of training for IC Bus, said more than 1,000 school bus technicians have participated in the training sessions since they began in October of 2008, when IC Bus became the first school bus manufacturer to offer the formal factory training for technicians. At the time there were approximately 150 participants. Today, the training sessions are limited to 60 people at each of the four offerings.
When we started we had no clue just how ‘hungry’ the school bus technicians were for training,” Johnson added. “And, for those first two sessions (in 2008) we literally had to turn people away. So it has grown from there.”
He added that technicians have come to Tulsa from as far as American Samoa to attend the training.
Those interested in attending IC Bus University should contact their IC Bus dealer for registration information and procedures. Cost for the session is $400 and includes all daily transportation, lunches, evening and lunch presentations, instruction by Navistar trainers and instructional materials.
Participants are asked to arrive on day one by noon to join an afternoon guided tour of the bus plant, with the focus being on location and and identification of key components in and around the bus. An evening training session covers Navistar parts and common service issues.
Day two splits the participants into three groups for eight hours of classes for the next three days on Navistar engines, bus and chassis electrical and bus maintenance. A lunch session on both day two and three covers both Specialty Manufacturing stop-arm and crossing-gate equipment and bus paint. The evening training sessions on days two through four cover full power hydraulic brakes, bus air conditioning and axles.
An Allison Transmission teardown session is held on day five for four hours until lunch and shuttles take participants to the airport or to their hotels.
