Deutz apprentice shop

Deutz AG builds premium engines and trains the apprentice on premium
tools


Ausbildung bei der DEUTZ AG / Werk Ulm - YouTube

This video impressed me greatly but at the same time left me sad and slightly angry.

The apprentice school is superbly equipped and the apprentices were learning up to date appropriate skills on some of the best machine tools available anywhere. The surroundings and the pride of the company in their employees and their appearance are absolutely exemplary. The investment that the company is making in training is clearly large and they deserve to prosper as a result.

So why sad and angry? It is because I doubt whether there are more than a dozen engineering companies in UK who could offer anything like that training to apprentices now. Indeed the very meaning of apprenticeship has been significantly devalued. I benefitted from some good training and it taught me much more than just specific skills. I am sad and angry that those opportunities are now available to so few in this country.

I agree Bilmac ,but I doubt if there is anywhere like that in the UK now ,I have been around the JCB academy which is probably as close as you will get but they only have POS Bridgeport/ Colchester clone machines .

sable said:

I agree Bilmac ,but I doubt if there is anywhere like that in the UK now ,I have been around the JCB academy which is probably as close as you will get but they only have POS Bridgeport/ Colchester clone machines .

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I was probably being optimistic, but I fear you are right.

I don't know of a single US company that has had a real machinist apprentice program for the last 30 years.

It looks a lot like some of our major danish companies apprentice program. Glad to have served it a place like that, turning, milling, grinding, EDM and assembly was part of my education. Only difference from 25 years ago and to now, is the number of apprentices. Maybe reduced to 1/3 of the 200 we were at that time, all in all.

ewlsey said:

I don't know of a single US company that has had a real machinist apprentice program for the last 30 years.

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I took a tour of a place yesterday with several machining and tool and die apprentices. Yes it was a real program best i have seen. There are several places in the area with apprentices in the South eastern part of Wisconsin.