RUTLAND, Vt. (WCAX) – A technical program at the GE Aerospace plant in Rutland is celebrating its 50th year of training the next generation of engineers.
Ethan Pieper just graduated from General Electric’s Advanced Machinist | Toolmaker Apprentice Program and is now working full time at the plant.
“It was great to have the opportunity to come in and learn all these new things but a challenge for me because it was totally outside my wheelhouse,” Pieper said.
The apprenticeship program just marked its 50th anniversary, graduating a class of nine new GE workers.
It’s a big commitment. As part of the three-year program, participants are expected to work a full shift at the plant in North Clarendon and then attend classes through Vermont State University at night three to four times a week.
“I personally have a young family, a new dad around the time I started the program, so it was definitely a big challenge,” Pieper said.
But many say it’s worth it. Aaron Pratt was part of the program years ago and is now one of the site trainers for the toolmaker program.
“I’d say what has changed in the last 30ish years is now currently some of the skills we’re training are a little more advanced,” Pratt said.
It’s real on-the-job training allowing students to sample each part of the plant to find what job best suits them.
“Throughout the whole thing you get to see every part of the business from forming all the way to final product,” Pieper said.
“We’ve had multiple examples of folks get right out of high school and come in,” Pratt said. “It’s great to see them learn from the ground up at that age.”
Pratt says the program gives the entire plant a big boost to what it can accomplish in the next 50 years, but says it’s also been extremely fulfilling for him.
“Its been very rewarding for me to go through the program and then several decades later kind of get the opportunity to oversee it,” he said. “Training these apprentices and keeping them in our workforce helps to develop and grow our own talent locally.”
General Electric says applications for the program usually open up each spring.
