January 5, 2023
Story by Maggie Harris and Photo by Joe Vinduska
Scale Technician classes will join the lineup at the Barton Community College Grandview Plaza campus starting Jan. 23. The program can be completed in one semester of hands-on training and students will be ready to enter the weights & measures workforce immediately.
Scales are a vital part of agriculture and many other commercial businesses, but installing, maintaining and certifying them is a job easily overlooked by the public. They are used every day at feedyards, fertilizer companies, grain elevators, grocery stores, packing companies, pawn shops and much more. Anywhere money changes hands in some fashion based on weight, commercial scales are used and required to be certified by state statute.
The industry is facing a shortage of skilled workers as many workers begin to retire. This program opens opportunities for those interested in starting a career in the industry or for those looking to advance their careers.
Barton’s Scale Technician Program consists of 27 credit hours in one semester with students in class for extended periods of time. Students focus on a course for one to two weeks, accomplishing the same number of hours put in throughout a traditional semester and covers math, relevant electricity and computer concepts, safety regulations, scale calibration and a class A or B commercial driver’s license test.
Having a CDL program at Barton is a significant asset to the Scale Technician certificate, providing another element for their resume. For semi-truck scales, techs will drive a large truck onto a scale to assess the scale’s accuracy. When hauling this amount of weight to operate these and other vehicles legally, a CDL is required.
There are plenty of other attractive selling points to the program. Coordinator and Instructor of Agriculture and Scales Vic Martin said this program is special.
“This is the only program of its kind in the Midwest,” he said. “The State of Kansas will recognize this certificate as the training to get your certificate from the state to certify scales. Once working with a company, the state will provide you a license to certify scales.”
Martin said job security is also a benefit of a career as a scale tech.
“Each state has rules and regulations about scales needing to be certified as accurate and working properly. In the state of Kansas, once every 365 days a scale must be certified or after major repairs,” he said. “There are thousands and thousands of these scales and this need for recertification provides job security for graduates of the program.”