Bucks County Community college in the Philly area is starting a program to
“prepare students for the Railroad Training Academy”.
Do the training academys (are there more than MODOC?) have entrance requirements other than a GED or High School Diploma?
Is the selection process so rigorous that it requires special preparation?
(would the classes help my typing and spelling…)
It would be interesting to hear about anybodys experiences with a Railroad training academy…
Considering the two major RRs in the northeast have their own training (heh) programs… seems like a complete waste of money.
I don’t have first hand experience with these schools as the class 1 I went to work for had it’s own school they sent us too. A friend of a friend went and spent around 10k and wasn’t able to score a job. Another one of his friends went and ended up landing a job. From what I was told there is no job placement. Most railroads will train you or send you to conductor school once you pass some initial tests. Do your homework before forking over the money, IMO these railroad schools seem bogus.
A railroad like NS will most likely not hire you if you have been to one of those schools. They want to teach you thier way and their way only. The only use for those railroad school, are making you somewhat more knowledgable about basic railroad operations and you’ll maybe get a job with a shortline easier. But even shortlines prefer class one experience over the schools.
Be cheaper and easier to simply show up at the Railroad and tell them yer wanting a job. They will send you to THIER own school or classes to work THIER way.
These schools sound like scams unless Shortlines are using them like Trucking Companies do sometimes.
OK, I don’t know much about this, admittedly, but according to the Modoc website, they have 100% job placement since 2000. Is this with mostly shortlines? It seems to me that if they were all that horrible then they wouldn’t be able to boast of such statistics (assuming they are true).
I went there and checked out the site. Looks like a rip off for the prices. Where did you see 100% job placement? It’s says
Q: What is the success rate for your school?
A: The school averages 94% job placement. We have 100% job offers since January 4, 2000.
Q: Does your school guarantee a job?
A: No. Any reputable school, from your local Junior college, to the Modoc Railroad Academy will not and can not guarantee any type of employment.
Really just a waste of money in my opinion. They an say whatever they want about clas one’s hiring their graduates, but in my hiring session with NS 6 years ago there were a three guys there with those little “certification cards” out there showing them off telling how their chances were so much better than everybody else standing there waiting to get in. They didn’t make it through the first cut. I ask one of the hiring officers there about that and he said they don’t like to hire people that already have learned bad habits or that were taught based on a different set of rules besides NS rules.
No reputable institute of higher learning will EVER guarantee a job to anyone completing the requirements. Interviews, maybe, but never a job.
That’s because it is mathmatically possible for a complete moron to get through some of these vocational schools and still be totally worthless to an employer – especially in the area of the person’s “mental state”.
For a RR to reject an applicant solely because he/she went to a “railroad academy” is illegal – and grounds for an EEOC complaint and lawsuit, so I doubt any of them would get involved with this type of policy. A NS hiring officer telling total strangers at a hiring session that NS doesn’t like to hire people with “those cards” from railroad academies is a idiot, opening up his employer for a huge federal lawsuit, fines and penalties. The first complaint and lawsuit would come quickly from the railroad academies themselves, I would think.
Think the MODOC program is expensive? Have you priced college tuition lately? I’ll bet the program at Bucks Community College is cheaper than MODOC. And that’s the whole point.&n
Tuition was running me 5K per year in a little community college. A few hundred here, a few more in the books (Which really never got used) and a few more in expenses per quarter. Nice tidy income for the school. Im glad I went.
But Im not happy with clueless high school students being handed paperwork to finance thier loans to the thousands and thousands of dollars just to get a place in a school. Some of these loans reach 40, 60, 90 or more thousands of dollars in the first year. These kids are told sign here, dont worry about the details and here is your new class schedule.
On the other hand, they start getting educated right away – like “read everything completely before you sign it” and "don’t sign anything when someone tells you ‘don’t worry about the details’ ". That’s one of the many reasons so many people nowadays are stuck with an adjustable rate mortgage they can no longer afford. They might have been told lies by the loan officer, but the bottom line is it is incumbent on us to read all documents we are about to sign. Or live with the consequences.
$5,000 a year at community college is a bargain. Even at a state college or university the tuition/room/board expenses average $18,000 to $40,000 a year – and up.
My guess is that back over 15 yrs ago when these so called choo-choo schools began, it then probably was a wise investment as rrs started to hire train service people after a 10 plus yr gap in no hiring and need a pool of trained prospective employees to hire. Chances were most likely a student would be hired. Now w/the demand slowing down to almost nill for these jobs, chances are decresaing that a student who finished the course can get a job. I have heard about the school in KC still teaches the same number of classes that they did a few yrs ago but what the percentage is of students are being hired by rrs? Most likely very low and sounds like a rip off to me.
SF:
The operating culture, maybe true. (There is still a large number of folks yet to retire and you could always hire-on at Gillette where BNSF is getting desparate…But then, you had better bring your housing with you)
The M/W side, especially welders, not true.
[quote user=“Poppa_Zit”]
No reputable institute of higher learning will EVER guarantee a job to anyone completing the requirements. Interviews, maybe, but never a job.
That’s because it is mathmatically possible for a complete moron to get through some of these vocational schools and still be totally worthless to an employer – especially in the area of the person’s “mental state”.
For a RR to reject an applicant solely because he/she went to a “railroad academy” is illegal – and grounds for an EEOC complaint and lawsuit, so I doubt any of them would get involved with this type of policy. A NS hiring officer telling total strangers at a hiring session that NS doesn’t like to hire people with “those cards” from railroad academies is a idiot, opening up his employer for a huge federal lawsuit, fines and penalties. The first complaint and lawsuit would come quickly from the railroad academies themselves, I would think.
Think the MODOC program is expensive? Have you priced college tuition lately? I’ll bet the program at Bucks Community College is cheaper than MODOC. And that
The RR’s Like to hire former Military as they are used to working strange and wierd hours, when I went to a hiring session they never asked me or anyone if they were a railfan the only thing they asked me why I wanted to work for the RR (maybe that was a subtle way of asking), which I am not anyway, I do know that there is one class I who hires from CHOO-CHOO U but not sure if its BNSF or UP could be neither I know CSX sends you to the Ready training center in Atlanta GA but even passing that doesn’t mean your hired and depending on where you live you could still have to pay for it out of your own pocket I know even if your an experienced conductor NS will still make you go thru thier training program as we had a former Amtrak conductor in my class but he lost his senority in doing so. If you want to work for a class I do waste your money let the hire and train you if you want to work for a smaller RR then maybe thats the ticket but do your homework first, find out what the RR you want to work for requires then make your decision to go to CHOO-CHOO U if you need to
Here at UWSP, I’m paying about $5,500 for tuition. Pretty standard for Wisconsin schools, other than the larger Madison, UWM, and UWGB. Tuition is about 7,000 there, 14,000 total.
[quote user=“Poppa_Zit”]
No reputable institute of higher learning will EVER guarantee a job to anyone completing the requirements. Interviews, maybe, but never a job.
That’s because it is mathmatically possible for a complete moron to get through some of these vocational schools and still be totally worthless to an employer – especially in the area of the person’s “mental state”.
For a RR to reject an applicant solely because he/she went to a “railroad academy” is illegal – and grounds for an EEOC complaint and lawsuit, so I doubt any of them would get involved with this type of policy. A NS hiring officer telling total strangers at a hiring session that NS doesn’t like to hire people with “those cards” from railroad academies is a idiot, opening up his employer for a huge federal lawsuit, fines and penalties. The first complaint and lawsuit would come quickly from the railroad academies themselves, I would think.
Think the MODOC program is expensive? Have you priced college tuition lately? I’ll bet the program at Bucks Community College is cheaper than MODOC. And that
The EEOC only deals with discrimination based on age, race, gender, creed, national orgin, or equal pay issues. They could care less about any other reason.
Thanks for being so clever and classy in your response. Calling people names does not make you right, but it does say something about you. And thanks for letting me off the hook by not piping up in the photo thread, as you say.
Obviously, the railroad you work for didn’t hire you for its legal department – nor are you entrusting with hiring, either. Have someone dial up the EEOC website and read it to you.
You need to brush up, too. Go here and do some reading before you give legal opinions:
You let me down in the fact that you didnt come back with your twisted one sided wrong answeres and name calling as in other post. and letting you off was me being nice as you dont understand and your wrong as usual. And I dont haft to prove myself to you or anyone here but If your track side where i run( and i do work for the ns) your camera and you will move as the police will move you. They hate buffs to. (railfans are ok buffs we hate.) and now to this issue. I have had dealings with the EEOC and they are nice people over there. And as we have told you they can say anything they want