Youth apprenticeship can be a life-changing experience not only for high school students but also for the mentors and employees who make it happen.
Ian Johnson, fabrication manager at Seagrave, is a true believer.
“The biggest thing is you’re able to feel it, touch it, see it, smell it. It’s a different atmosphere when you’re on the floor at a manufacturing facility than you are in the classroom. It’s real world. It’s real life. […] What you do matters,” Johnson tells co-hosts Kate Bruns of Insight and Ann Franz of the NEW Manufacturing Alliance on the latest episode of the NEW Manufacturing Insights podcast, sponsored by Stoke RGA.
Johnson and Ryan Gauthier, a youth apprentice and former Skills USA participant, both work for the Clintonville-based fire apparatus manufacturer, which will be a recipient of a NEWMA Excellence in Manufacturing K-12 Partnership Award Oct. 27 in Green Bay.
Seagrave is being recognized for its extensive youth and community engagement, including donating 7,000 pounds of steel to assist students learning welding, providing tools and equipment to support school curricula, and maintaining active engagement with Clintonville High School, of which Ryan is a recent graduate.
On this week’s episode, both Johnson and Gauthier share some of their takeaways on the topic of youth apprenticeship, including the impact the presence of students on the manufacturing floor has had on the more seasoned workforce.
“At first, it was hard, because it was, you know, ‘We’re not babysitters.’ Well, when you take a student that has a passion for a job, that wants to do something, and they can come into a facility like ours and we can grow with them, it runs, and my senior employees are excited,” Johnson shares on episode 143.
Gauthier has already made plans to remain with the company after completing his apprenticeship. He finds the work incredibly rewarding, he says.
“Before I started, I had a pretty basic understanding of what manufacturing was, like taking machining parts and building a finished product with them,” he says on the podcast. “But going into Seagrave and actually seeing that firsthand was truly mind-blowing. Like, these pieces are as big as a room, and they’re just going through these machines, and I get to work on them.”
Listen for more, including both Johnson’s and Gauthier’s best leadership insights, by downloading and subscribing to NEW Manufacturing Insights anywhere you get audio podcasts.
NEW Manufacturing Insights is a joint project of Insight and NEWMA, produced by Woodward Community Media and distributed by Spreaker. New episodes are released every Thursday, though the podcast will take next Thursday off due to the Manufacturing First Expo & Conference. Tune in for our special Manufacturing First recap episode Nov. 5.
