Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Teaching: Passing along wisdom and experience.
It is the foundation of apprenticeship.
A foundation that has made Washington State
the world leader in aerospace.
Precision craftsmanship.
Cutting edge technology.
State of the art equipment.
This is the world of apprenticeship training.
Local employers know they're on the front line
of maintaining our leadership in the aerospace industry.
We have the most highly skilled workers,
and AJAC apprenticeships will keep it that way.
Well apprenticeship, to me,
is a structured program for an individual
to learn a particular trade.
Basically, closing that skill gap for labor
that we can have come into our facility
and help us facilitate a better employee coming in the door.
The apprenticeship program, what it does to us,
it gives us an extreme amount of flexibility.
We're able to move people around and wherever
the ebbs and flows of the production process go,
then we can move people to those areas
when they're over-overloaded.
Every shop, I've ever been to,
they have their goto people.
They've been doing this for years,
and in fact, decades.
You can't bring somebody in from the outside
to just step into those shoes.
There's a loss in productivity that's
inevitably involved.
Whereas if you can, before that person retires,
get that knowledge transferred.
Then your, its going to be a seamless transition for you.
They don't teach many mechanical skills
in schools these days.
And, we have an older machinist population
at this point in time
because the skills are just being lost.
It's a big help for me.
My work actually pays for this
and they pay for my books, my tuition.
All that stuff so I don't have to ask for financial aid.
Then tuition, I mean, there's still some tuition
but its a fraction of what it would have been.
It's nice because you can apply what you learn in class,
you know, in work, in the work environment.
And then also, you take what you do everyday
at work and apply that towards your class studies.
I can work, I can go to school.
It was all, its all happening.
Its invaluable to have some kind of a training organization.
Especially when you're company of 22 employees.
We don't have the resources
to set up our own training programs.
Its just amazing and its,
its worth every penny we spend on it and more.
So the return in investment for us
is phenomenal for a company my size.
Without that we will not stay competitive,
or we will not have the qualified people we need
down the road to keep growing and expanding.
And then you have a situation
where an employee did not show up that day.
For whatever reason.
And you can move one of the apprentices to that
piece of equipment because they've already learned it.
You're already getting payback right there.
We saw a 40% productivity gain
by having multi-skilled workers.
It makes wonderful business sense.
Its profitable and its good for morale.
What has been shown and tested over and over again
is that when people feel invested in,
that they're more likely to stay with the employer
that they've been involved with.
They have a sense of knowledge of the equipment
that you have in your particular shop or environment.
Um, they have a sense of camaraderie with their peers,
you know, and the people they work with.
They're helping you with the school
and they're telling you where you need to go
and the things you need to do and that gives you a sense of,
"Well, they're interested in me."
I feel I have a commitment to my company.
They've shown interest
in my personal growth as an employee.
You know, other companies haven't done that.
The pay program motivates our apprentices,
or most apprentices, because they know that if they're
achieving their goals and standards
that we've set forth
and the apprenticeship program has set forth.
That there's a known pay scale increase at certain intervals.
The more I learn, the more money I'm going to make.
Somethings they have here, I don't have at work,
and maybe they're going to have it in the future.
So I'm going to be the goto guy
when they have the new stuff.
AJAC is a non-profit, State funded organization
that was founded in 2008.
And we've been growing like gangbusters ever since.
Our main mission is to make sure that we capture
the knowledge and skills of the current generation,
the folks who know what they're doing, to capture
that before the art and skill of these trades are lost.
The whole way that your company works is going
to be different because you're going to have
skilled workers from top to bottom.
And they're going to not just know how to push a button,
but they're going to know why they're pushing the button.
And when something goes wrong, they're going to be able to jump
from one machine to the other machine to fix it.
You're actually going to have a wealth of breadth
and depth of knowledge in your company that you will
not see without an apprenticeship program.
My goal is to get that Journeyman Machinist card,
and I know that I can do it for this program.
Evenutally, you know, I want to be the goto guy.
Its a fantastic opportunity.
It opens, you know, a lot more doors.
I would say, you know, absolutely, ah,
you'd be crazy not to take advantage
of an apprenticeship program.
Unmeasurable return on investment.
It is one of the most valuable four years
I've spent in my career, as far as learning.
If they want, you know, a better bottom line.
They want to have a loyal employee for years to come.
They certainly would go with an apprenticeship program.
Apprenticeships make good business sense
and it's a great return on investment.
I would recommend to any employer that they
become a part of the apprenticeship program.
I can recommend it with no qualms and no reservations.
Apprenticeships: keeping Washington State
the aerospace leader.
And providing you a great return on investment.
Contact AJAC today to set up your apprenticeship program.
Look for us on the web at AJACTraining.org.