Echo Opens National Training Center for Technicians
Echo Inc. has opened its Echo National Training Center in McHenry, Ill., which will deliver comprehensive, practical education on Echo’s industrial power equipment (IPE) and outdoor power equipment (OPE) for technicians.
The new 6,025-square-foot facility was designed to provide an interactive curriculum, combining web-based pre-learning and traditional classroom instruction with in-depth, hands-on experience. The center will regularly host training sessions for technicians across Echo's dealer and distributor network, supporting Echo’s IPE and OPE product lines.
"The equipment our dealers service today is more sophisticated than ever — and the expectations of the end customer have risen with it,” said Fernando Iacona, vice president of corporate development & product service at Echo Inc. “With more than 6,000 independent Echo dealers across North America, technicians that can diagnosis and service with speed and accuracy are a business imperative. This center gives professionals in our network the product knowledge and hands-on practice they need to reduce machine downtime, increase productivity and build lasting customer confidence in Echo equipment."
Developed by and in collaboration with service technicians, the center’s layout and curriculum are built around how technicians learn best. Classes at the McHenry center are designed for small class sizes of no more than 12 participants, enabling meaningful one-on-one interaction with Echo product and service experts.
In the courses, instructors introduce theory and key concepts in short classroom segments. Participants then apply what they have learned in the shop through guided activities, troubleshooting and experiential training. Courses are continuously refined using real-time feedback to ensure training stays aligned with what dealers and service professionals are seeing in the field.
Training programs are also structured around defined levels of technical mastery, allowing technicians to build skills progressively across Echo’s equipment platforms. Upon completion of the coursework, participants earn an Echo certificate recog’s training programs and eligibility, visit www.echo-usa.com or contact an Echo representative.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.