Launching an Apprenticeship Program for $130
This shop uses an inexpensive plug-in for a website-hosting platform to manage its custom, in-house apprenticeship program.
Paul Harbath, director of quality and continuous improvement for LeanWerks, has been key to helping develop the lessons for the shop’s Technical Excellence Training (TExT) program and administrating it.
LeanWerks calls it “TeXT.” TeXT stands for Technical Excellence Training program, an in-house apprenticeship program the shop developed to cultivate its own talent and provide new hires with a clear pathway leading to a machining career.
To manage it, the shop used WordPress to create a TExT “training website,” and then purchased a plug-in called LearnDash, which effectively turns WordPress into an online learning management system. The one-time cost for the LearnDash license was a mere $130.
As described in this article, many training lessons in the TeXT program include instructional video taken of actual LeanWerks shopfloor processes and practices to clearly outline the steps required to complete a given task safely and effectively. To date, the shop has produced more than 130 such videos for its TExT program. The article mentioned above includes an example of a training video LeanWerks produced explaining how to properly fill out first- and final-article inspection reports for a given job.
Related Content
-
When Handing Down the Family Machine Shop is as Complex as a Swiss-Turned Part
The transition into Swiss-type machining at Deking Screw Products required more than just a shift in production operations. It required a new mindset and a new way of running the family-owned business. Hardest of all, it required that one generation let go, and allow a new one to step in.
-
Can Connecting ERP to Machine Tool Monitoring Address the Workforce Challenge?
It can if RFID tags are added. Here is how this startup sees a local Internet of Things aiding CNC machine shops.
-
How I Made It: Amy Skrzypczak, CNC Machinist, Westminster Tool
At just 28 years old, Amy Skrzypczak is already logging her ninth year as a CNC machinist. While during high school Skrzypczak may not have guessed that she’d soon be running an electrical discharge machining (EDM) department, after attending her local community college she found a home among the “misfits” at Westminster Tool. Today, she oversees the company’s wire EDM operations and feels grateful to have avoided more well-worn career paths.
