I'm sure there are some forklift trade schools out there, just not many. It's good that your company is willing to hire and train new guys.

I think if you want to get young people interested in forklift service, it's like any other product you want to sell, advertise, advertise, and have the schooling available, wether it's at a communtiy college or a devry type trade school.

Then again, I think I like it just the way it is, Auto mechanics are a dime a dozen (note: i'm not in no way disrespecting or degrading the auto guys !!) but there are alot of them and I think that it's because its promoted in college and on trade school commercials all the time.

I say this humbley and I know alot of you forklift mechanics out there that have been in the business a while know this as well, you can get a job tomorrow at any of the competitors if you wanted too and thats because the forklift mechanic is a trade that is not offered in most schools or advertised on tv. It's a trade were you had learn from grumpy old school forklift mechanics and maybe sent to some dealer schools but mostly had to learn by trial and error.
So in my own hillbilly mind, I like knowing no matter where I go I have job, because the market is not flooded with forklift mechanics.

I hope I did not offend any auto machanics out there, i know they work just as hard as the forklift mechainc and are needed just as bad, so I apoligize if I did.