Training machinists the old-fashioned way

Many companies no longer operate the apprenticeship programs once common in the manufacturing industry. However, in the late 1990s, the Chesapeake Machine Co. reactivated its apprenticeship program to meet its growing need for skilled machinists. Today, it still operates the program, which offers apprentices full-time employment during the 4-year program and includes a minimum of 144 hours of class work each year. Alan Rooks, editorial director of Cutting Tool Engineering, spoke with Tom Rukstelis, machine shop supervisor at Chesapeake Machine, to find out how the program works.

Founded in 1981, Chesapeake Machine, East Baltimore, Md., serves a diverse base of regional, national and international customers. It offers turnkey project management, including original equipment manufacturing, industrial maintenance and repair and contract manufacturing. One ongoing contract is for containerized water purification systems for the U.S. military. Its work is split evenly between machining and fabrication. Many jobs involve large parts, so all machining and fabrication bays in the 32,500-sq.-ft. plant are equipped with overhead cranes.

Rooks: What were the factors that led your company to restart its apprenticeship program?

Rukstelis: Chesapeake Machine had an apprenticeship program until the early 1990s. The company sent several guys through the program and we retained them—they’re still working here today. In the late 1990s, the business took off as we expanded into new markets. We wanted to add more machinists but had a hard time finding qualified people. We’re a job shop and a metal fabricator, and we deal with workpieces on the larger end of the scale. The candidates we were getting from employment services and ads in the paper were not fully qualified machinists. They were operators and the like, and they wouldn’t fit in well with what we do here. One of the problems is that machining is no longer taught in the public school systems around here, and vocational schools deal more in computer technology. There are some automotive classes left, but the welding and the machine shop aspects of it are pretty much nonexistent.

Since we couldn’t find any good candidates, we found ourselves running two shifts and guys would be working 12-hour days, sometimes 6 days a week. We’re all getting older and it was wearing on everybody. One of the guys that works here had a son who just happened to be interested in this kind of work, and we hired him. After that, we recruited a young man who was probably one of the last ones to go through the Baltimore school system’s machine shop program, and we brought him onboard. Through the grapevine, we also heard about two guys who had relatives who work here and found out they might be interested in working here. We brought them in to see what kind of aptitude they had. It turns out that the children of blue-collar people seem to have a natural knack for the business.

As a result of our success recruiting these people, we decided to reopen our apprenticeship program in December 2006, and re-registered it with Maryland’s department of licensing and registration. You have to be an accredited school or a registered workplace if you want to be able to award journeyman papers. The apprentices are paid while they are in the program.

Rooks: How did you set up the apprenticeship program?

Rukstelis: We went about it a different way by using an accredited correspondence school so that the apprentices could learn at the shop. Me and some of the older guys at the shop had to go to a community college 2 nights a week for 4 years to get our journeyman papers [in a traditional program], but we decided on the correspondence school because we can keep a better eye on them here at the shop. What they learn here is really no different than what they would in a community college.

Rooks: Who supervises the apprenticeship program?

Tom Rukstelis, machine shop supervisor, Chesapeake Machine Co.

Rukstelis: We brought in Garry Mathias, who retired from Chesapeake a few years ago. He guides the apprentices through the program. One day per week, they sit down with Garry and review the books. They also move around the shop and learn aspects of each machine.

Rooks: When the apprentices are not working on the correspondence course or learning with Garry, are they running machines?