LSCO gives 10-4 to truck driving classes

Dave Rogers

For The Record

Drive, the trucking companies are pleading, and Lamar State College-Orange is set to do its part.

The LSCO Workforce Education program is now offering a Class A Commercial Truck Driving Program, a six-week course that will lead to local and national driving jobs.

“With the expansion of local industry, truck driving is a high-demand occupation for Southeast Texas. We have a lot of lot of local businesses in Orange ready to hire,” said Thera Celestine, Workforce Education director.

“They can work locally and be home every evening or they can be a long-hauling driver.”

LSCO’s first class begins Monday, Jan. 13, and meets from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays for six weeks.

Grants from the Texas Workforce Commission are available that pay as much as 100 percent of a student’s tuition and fees, if eligible, Celestine said.

“There’s even a Workforce program that offers on-the-job training for businesses,” she said. “If a business wants to pay students, they [TWC] will pay $9 per hour while they train, and if they [local companies] hire them, Workforce will pay up to 50 percent of their salary.”

The curriculum requirements for the Class A license include 120 hours of classroom instruction and 120 hours on the road.

“A Class A license is unlimited, so graduates will be able to to do 18-wheelers, school buses or dump trucks, though they will need to get extra endorsements for passenger bus and dump truck,” Celestine said.

“Unlike Class B, this covers it all.”

She said LSCO has driving simulators ordered that when they’re delivered in the spring be able to simulate 12 different vehicles, everything from buses to ambulances to police cars.

Courses are available for the spring and summer semesters: Jan. 13-Feb. 24; March 2-April 14; April 20-June 1; June 8-July 20; July 27-Sept. 4.

More information is available online at https://www.lsco.edu/workforce/commercial-truck-driving.asp .