Wednesday, August 14, 2013

My daughter is going to become a machinist?

    Yep last week my daughter asked if she could borrow 200$.Normally you would think house payment power bill or something else.No her boss offered her a chance to go to school and get a LEAN certification (its a safety and procedure course that OSHA likes company's to have)and after that they want her to take basic machine shop operation plus CNC operation.If she passes a course they repay her 100%.The company that she works for was started by a woman and they make Molds for other company's.When she got the job i have to say i was kinda proud.My daughter has only worked fast food(about 8 different ones) and they didn't pay much over minimum wage.The part that i was proud of is she got this job with no help from me but i have known the owners for almost 25 years.Right now shes running a molding machine making test part for customers( if you fish with plastic bait 80% chance the molds came from here).When she passes the LEAN program she will also handle the paper work and compliance with OSHA.once she passes the machine shop courses and has those certificates they will train her in house on manual and CNC.I told her that the average age of a machinist around here is 55+ and as a woman she could work anywhere once she had some experience.When she asked what her pay could move to she almost fell out when i told her start over 16.00$ an hour up 24.00 after a few years.The  company shes with now will probable move her into that range.Last week i took BBQs down for there lunch and to say hello to the owners a worker in the shop told me i need to go in the office due to shop safety Regina the owner informed him i had been in shops before he was born.
    I think my daughter has a future as a machinist.The owner Regina is a great machinist and her partner ray is a engineer that builds molding machines.A female will get a fair chance with them because they built their company working can to cant.I think training a female to run mills lathes and drill presses is fine if she wants it.Its rare but not unheard of.
    Companies are beginning to wake up that skilled people are not available in alot of positions.A shop is a dirty hot place and most kids do not want to do those jobs.I know many companies that have men in there late 60s still working at great pay because there is no replacements.

2 comments:

  1. That's a career with a future. I don't see why a woman couldn't do it, it's mainly headwork now isn't it? It's not like you are doing heavy lifting, etc.

    The main thing is to have a job that they can't export to Mexico or China, and that sounds like one to me. I see advertisements in our paper here sometimes for that kind of skills. If you could find work up here in the field, you could work anywhere.

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  2. A lot of its head work with the CNC machines but some stuff still has to be done the old fashioned way by hand.

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