OMAHA, Neb. — CLAAS of America held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday, July 10, for its all-new CLAAS Academy. Located at the CLAAS of America headquarters in Omaha, the state-of-the-art facility will enhance the training experience for dealer technicians and bring additional training and certification programs to their product specialists, sales and parts staff.

The 20,000 sq. ft. training academy will offer CLAAS dealers a premium training experience in a highly professional learning environment that features innovative technology. Dealers can be confident that when their staff attends CLAAS Academy, their teams will be better prepared to serve their customers who operate CLAAS machinery.

“CLAAS of America is proud to offer some of the finest training programs when it comes to preparing technicians for resolving customer issues in the field,” says Adam Haworth, Director of Services, CLAAS of America. “And because we recognize the importance of continuing this high level of service and support, we realize we must train our dealer technicians in the best way possible.”

The company also plans to incorporate outreach programs, such as apprenticeships, into CLAAS Academy in an effort to cultivate knowledge and engage the local community and technical schools through certification programs. For example, earlier this year, CLAAS of America announced its partnership in Nebraska’s first German-American Apprenticeship Program. With the new facility, CLAAS is better equipped to continue to foster these programs.

“With the training programs and certifications that we provide, there is now a true pathway for those performing service on CLAAS machinery to get up to speed on how the technology works and continue giving our customers the support they deserve,” said Haworth.

CLAAS Academy of North America will play an integral role in developing the industry standard training pathway for dealers and technicians to follow. The new facility is scheduled to open in the fall of 2020. In the meantime, technicians can continue to schedule training sessions through the CLAAS dealer portal.