“Are their concerns about the viability of apprenticeship programs as an answer to the skills gap existing in today’s manufacturing workforce?” This question was posed to Bud Tyler, Vice President at EF Precision in Willow Grove. “Here are my concerns with Apprenticeships, being that I went 
through mine when there was a plethora of schools, students, jobs and shops willing to hire you that supported the program. Here we are, almost 30 years later and apprenticeship programs are few and far between. The ones that do have a supportive leadership team and large Human Resources departments that can handle the administrative requirements and manage the transition from one area to another. I looked into the apprenticeship programs for my company several years ago to no avail….shame on me for not getting it done.”
Bud was asked why he felt that interest had fallen off since the days of 
his entry into the manufacturing world. “There is still something missing. We have the same rules that existed 30 years ago, still thousands of hours of school and shop time and the requirement of a committed and engaged employer. We continue to sell the same old stodgy program except we have added an on-line training component. This is potentially a problem that wasn’t prevalent years ago, the students now have access to Google… the student can easily access outside material google the answer, and may not have “learned” the answer. Machining requires you to learn, absorb, and use the “learned” tools. We want to see how they are developing with problem solving. We are sending confusing messages. We want educated students with aptitude; students that may not have been engaged in school. We want to lure them into manufacturing, tell them they can make “real” money… however, you need to go through a 4 year apprenticeship program, for some, you can see it in their face, really 4 years, and others say sign me up and let’s get this going, I believe we have created a quagmire situation and need to find ways to reduce the timeframe and not by hours, by years.”
Finally, Bud was asked what he felt was necessary to make apprenticeships work in today’s manufacturing environment. “Let me be perfectly clear; I believe in the value and need for apprenticeships and will do whatever is needed to support them for us. My fear is that the same old stodgy ways are attached to the marketing of today’s programs. 
It is no better than the 2/4 year college programs that parents want their kids to attend. Both ways require a ton of time and given the choice, a young person will chose the path of least resistance and keep in harmony with the home front. The MARKETING HAS TO BE DIFFERENT! The amount of time has to be challenging and compressed. The workforce of today moves quickly and the patience for a long term program doesn’t generally exist anymore, the patience isn’t there anymore, and yet the need, for these new machinist, continues to increase, it is up to us to make changes to conform for the new talents of tomorrow.”