FORT VALLEY, Ga. — Blue Bird will continue its tradition of providing its customers with valuable technical training, free from tuition charges, this year.

The school bus OEM's factory training workshops will be offered five times in 2012, with class sizes limited to 25 attendees to ensure focused and content-rich training, company officials said.

Blue Bird provides transportation between the host hotel and its Fort Valley plant, as well as lunch each day. Workshop topics include, but are not limited to, dual-zone multiplex system and SCR technology, and a complete walking factory tour is also on the agenda.

Attendees receive current service manuals (a $75 value) and other subject-related materials. Company officials said that the factory trainings fill up quickly, so prompt registration is recommended.

The factory training workshop schedule for 2012 is:

• Blue Bird Vision — March 5-8
• All American — April 2-5
• Blue Bird Vision — July 16-19
• All American — July 23-26
• Blue Bird Vision — October 1-4

Another branch of Blue Bird’s technical training is dealer technical training. Held at dealer facilities and regions across North America, dealer technical training is an excellent way to receive Blue Bird technical bus information without traveling far from home, company officials said.

Additionally, training topics can be customized to the customer and the dealership’s state or region. Contact an authorized Blue Bird dealer to find out more on dealer technical training opportunities.

Technical training webcasts provide a third training delivery option, which allows Blue Bird trainers to reach more customers with brief sessions on late-breaking updates and tightly focused topics of interest.

Participants need only a phone and a computer with a high-speed Internet connection. Blue Bird said that webcasts will be offered frequently throughout 2012. Contact an authorized Blue Bird dealer for webcast dates and times.

To register for training opportunities, contact an authorized Blue Bird dealer. For more information on Blue Bird or its products, go to www.blue-bird.com.