How to Train the Next Generation of Skilled Boiler Technicians
A rural Georgia plant is tackling the skilled labor shortage head-on with a hands-on training program
Trainees gradually move from classroom instruction, to working in the field. Courtesy of Miura
At Miura America’s Rockmart, Georgia campus, the noise of the factory floor faded upstairs, replaced by the eager questions of a new class of boiler technicians. Here, in a light-filled classroom just above the weathered Sherlock lab, six trainees puzzled through the complexities of steam, water, and wiring – a scene that would have been almost unthinkable a decade ago. Back then, the company drew much of its talent from the U.S. Navy’s now-shuttered boiler maintenance program. As those Navy veterans retired, Miura faced a stark reality: “We had to find another pool of candidates,” Jason Villarreal, the company’s Training Manager, recalled. “We figured one way of stimulating some interest in that career field would be by posting this trade program.”
Launched in late 2024, Miura’s Boiler Trade Program aims to train a younger generation of prospective candidates on boilers and water treatment – with urgent need for skilled labor as the old guard ages out. The training wasn’t just about filling a gap; it was about “scaffolded, structured training,” Villarreal said, that gave trainees “an opportunity to engage in independent work as well.”
The program is divided into three phases. The first is all about onboarding and orientation – classroom lessons, hands-on activities with two types of training boilers: live boilers connected to water, and non-live boilers meant to teach how Miura boilers communicate and share data over a network. Villarreal said instruction is a steady progression toward more complex tasks.
NAVY: The U.S. Navy’s old boiler maintenance program used to provide a steady, skilled workforce for Miura. Now that the maintenance program has been discontinued, Miura has developed a robust training program.
“If an oversight is made, maybe something’s not tightened properly and there’s a water leak, no customers are inconvenienced by it,” he added. That’s the point: to let learning happen where the stakes are low, but the lessons are real.
After three months, trainees ship out for their second phase, embedding at Miura branches and representative companies around the country. Whether it’s Texas, L.A., Virginia, or staying close to home in Georgia, they’re matched as best as possible to their preferences – though “at the end of the day, of course, we need to put them where their services are needed most.” The goal is to “further develop the trainees’ competency in fieldwork activities by providing supervised on-the-job training”– the first step towards phase three and increasingly independent work.
The program’s diversity is one of its strengths – and its challenges. Miura brings in trainees from the local community, “as long as they have some kind of mechanical or electrical experience, including experiencing on cars, for example, we are willing to consider their application,” Villarreal said.
International candidates, by contrast, must have at least a four-year degree. “We have a chemical engineer currently, right now in the class. Mechanical engineers are very common as well.” The result: a class where some students are “more familiar with those concepts” of engineering and controls, while others needed “a little remedial backfill.”
Hands-on learning is the heart of the program – especially preventive maintenance, which Villarreal called an ideal training ground. These supervised activities provide trainees with an excellent opportunity to familiarize themselves with a variety of boiler room setups and with the tools necessary for inspecting boilers and collecting water samples.
For now, the focus is on the graduates – those who, after a final exam, will step into a field still hungry for their skills. As other manufacturers look for ways to address the “huge labor shortage, skilled labor shortage,” Miura’s approach offers both a template and a challenge: invest in training, build partnerships, and never underestimate the human side of the skilled trades.
“Nothing dared, nothing gained,” Villarreal concluded, noting Miura’s president Paul O’Donnell is dedicated to pursuing solutions to the skilled labor gap. It’s a motto that seemed to fit this ambitious, hands-on experiment – a program determined not just to fill jobs, but to build careers.
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