Using your benefits for crane school
Our courses are approved for two VA programs: the Post-9/11 GI Bill® (Chapter 33) and Veteran Readiness and Employment (Chapter 31). The steps look like this:
- Apply to VA for a Certificate of Eligibility (Chapter 33), or talk with your VR&E counselor about crane operation as a vocational goal (Chapter 31).
- Pick a course and a start date with us.
- Send us your Certificate of Eligibility or VR&E authorization so we can certify your enrollment.
VA decides what it pays and how much of your entitlement a course uses, so get those answers from VA directly. Our VA compliance page lays out our policies for students using benefits.
Why the premium courses suit veterans traveling in
Every premium course matches a standard course hour for hour and adds premium extras plus a room and board option. Coming from about 200 miles away, that means you don't have to arrange a place to live for the length of class. There are four: the Premium Plus fixed/swing cab course (120 hours), the Premium fixed/swing cab course (40 hours), the Premium lattice course, and the Premium tower course.
If you'd rather find your own lodging, the standard versions are also approved.
Big lifts east of Austin
Eastern Travis County, where Manor sits, has seen some of the biggest industrial construction in the region in recent years, including a major electric vehicle factory along SH 130. Plants of that scale use crawler cranes with lattice booms for the heaviest picks: long structural members, large equipment and modules. Crawler work rewards people who are patient with assembly, careful about ground bearing and comfortable with long booms.
Veterans who ran heavy equipment or worked lifts in the service often find lattice cranes a good fit. The Mobile Crane Operations Lattice 40 Hours course, or its premium counterpart, prepares you for the NCCCO lattice boom crawler specialty. The practical exam for it is given in our yard on a crawler crane; see the lattice practical test page.
US-290 to SH 130, then north
From Manor, the shortest path to the interstate is usually west on US-290 to SH 130, then north on SH 130 until it merges with I-35 above Georgetown. Keep going through Temple and Waco, stay on I-35E where it splits at Hillsboro, and use I-20 east to come into Seagoville. That's around 200 miles, or roughly three and a quarter hours on a good day. Some Manor drivers prefer to cut over to I-35 sooner on US-79 through Taylor; either works.
If you're not a veteran
Manor is in Travis County, so Workforce Solutions Capital Area is the board to ask about WIOA training funds. Employers also sponsor a lot of our students, and paying your own tuition is common. Prices and options for every course are on the funding page.