RED DEER, Alta. — The long-awaited, post-Class 1 truck driver certification program at Red Deer College is set to open up this coming June.

The two-year pilot, named the Professional Driver Certificate Program, offers classroom theory as well as driver-training based on the Canadian Human Resources Trucking Council’s Earning Your Wheels program.

The first part of the course is eight weeks, combining theory and a minimum of 60 hours of in-cab training with a coaching mentor, who will have to take a two-day training course before teaching students. For students, the final part of the program is a paid co-op with a for-hire carrier.

“Government is committed to managing growth pressures and one way to do that is supporting access to training opportunities which address labor shortages,” said Doug Horner, Minister of Advanced Education and Technology. “Implementing this pilot program is an important step in examining the effectiveness of one program model to address the transportation industry’s forecasted demand for more trained truck drivers in Alberta.”

New technology, added business responsibility, and complex work environments have made more entry-level education for new truck drivers a necessity, and the program is responsive to those factors, said Horner.

The idea behind the certification program was to make truck drivers more professional in response to a high-profile licence mill scandal that rocked the province in February 2005.

The government and the trucking industry came up with the pilot as a way to firm up the driver training industry in Alberta after police shut down the Delta Driving School on suspicion that untrained truck drivers were being put behind the wheel for fees of up to $2,500.

Alberta is funding the program to the tune of $900,000 in grant funding. The full-time program will run from June to December.

It is being offered in Red Deer, Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge.