Meet Our Graduates

Terrance Ryan enrolled in the PLC Technician Certificate program to broaden his skills and find new employment opportunities. ‘For many years I have worked in electrical construction, as a journeyman electrician, but now wish to get into electrical maintenance. Knowledge of PLC's is vital for this type of work.”

‘I thoroughly enjoyed the program. The simulation software, PLCLogix, was easy to use. I could set up and debug my own projects. In addition I was fascinated with how Boolean algebra could be used to simplify circuits. Being able to access the program tutors by phone 6 days a week, was extremely helpful.’

Sumit Khangura enrolled in the PLC Technician program to supplement his Electronics Engineering Technology degree, as it did not provide an in-depth study of PLCs. He explained that his employer, Nav Canada, ‘didn't even ask me about my degree, they wanted to know more about my certificate in PLCs.’

Sumit is an Installation Technician ‘responsible for doing any and all PLC and automation related work.’

He believes that taking the PLC Technician program and learning about PLCs ‘really helped me when interfacing PLCs to scale controllers.’ He cites a specific time at work where there was ‘an issue with bit formatting which I was able to troubleshoot. I determined that the PLC was displaying the wrong weight due to using the wrong datatype; a byte instead of a double was initially used in the ladder logic program.’

There are a number of features of the program that he liked, first, ‘the certificate was self-paced, I could go as fast or as slow as I wanted and did not have to adhere to a professor's schedule and second, the simulation software ‘was an excellent tool to learn programming ladder logic.’ 

Jason Shell works at McKee Foods as a second shift Lead Electronics Technician. “At my workplace we use the Allen-Bradley RSLogix 5000 PLC hardware and software. I enrolled in the PLC Technician II program to get a better understanding of this technology and improve my performance at work. I am pleased to say that I have been able to apply a lot of what I learned on a daily basis.”

Jason also appreciated the flexibility of the program, allowing him to work on it at his own pace. “I have a busy life and I wouldn’t have been able to complete the program if I had to go on campus to do so.”

“My experience with the staff in the Support Center was always good. I was always able to talk to someone and get my questions answered.

Joseph Sallay is an Operations Supervisor at a municipal wastewater treatment facility.  ‘PLCs are used throughout our main treatment plant and auxiliary facilities.  We regularly operate as users on the front end; accessing and controlling the treatment process via SCADA, however I took the program to help me learn more about the back end of the operation, specifically programming and troubleshooting.’

‘The programs flexibility was important to me and allowed me to work on it as I had the time.’

‘I now have a better understanding of how PLCs work.  We are undergoing a large IT upgrade at our facility and I believe the extra knowledge I gained from the program will be useful’

‘With government financial assistance, I was able to enroll into the PLC and PLC Technician II programs. I had one year of experience troubleshooting and programming PLCs, both the SLC500 and 5000 series, but felt that really wasn’t enough.  The PLC programs from George Brown College were the best option to increase my knowledge and allowed me to add new skills to my resume. I particularly liked the training I received using the simulation software and found it a huge benefit. The Resource Center was also very helpful whenever I had any questions.’
 
‘I started my new job, as an Electrician at Edson Forest Products, just as I was finishing the last module of the PLC Technician II program. My employer seemed very pleased with my initiative to take the programs and update my skills. I have told others about these programs and think they are a great resource for electrician’s wanting to head into maintenance.’

Claude Clivet, registered into the PLC and PLC Technician II programs ‘to expand and consolidate [his] knowledge on Allen Bradley PLCs and ladder logic programming and to provide a broader spectrum of service to [his] customers.’ This was particularly relevant to Claude as a Field Service Technician in the food manufacturing sector, where he retrofits, installs, maintains and generally provides technical support for industrial equipment.

Claude uses his ‘new skills on a daily basis and has seen [his] responsibilities change.' But even more dramatically, he has much greater confidence in dealing with different situations at work, eliminating stress and errors on the job. 'I knew the effort [to take the programs] would pay back later on, and I wasn’t wrong. I see my awesome personal results every day at work.’

Ryan Taylor is an Electrician at Georgia Pacific and oversees the day-to-day production of lumber products. He enrolled in the PLC Technician II Certificate program "as it was a well-balanced program that helped to reinforce theories that I was familiar with and helped me gain knowledge in concepts where I wanted more information. In my current role, I now use SLC 500, PLC5 and RSLogix 5000/studio daily to troubleshoot problems or program improvements."

"While my core responsibilities have not changed I did receive a raise after I received my Certificate."