Help Wanted: Company seeking energetic individuals with experience in machining and tooling,computers, press operation, machine assembly, and contract manufacturing. Excellent salary and benefits. Only qualified individuals need apply.

As companies prepare for the new millenium, they have more than technology advancements and updates with which to contend. Within the next 10 to 20 years, baby boomers will leave the workforce in droves, taking with them a vast amount of industry knowledge and expertise. Companies need to protect and transfer this expertise to ensure that the new workforce maintains and improves upon current business practices.

To protect this knowledge base and educate newer employees, one company is looking backwards, retaining a training, mentor and apprentice program long-ago abandoned. By mixing the old with the new, The JADE Corporation hopes to mix energy with experience and reap the benefits.

Founded in 1947, JADE has evolved from its origin as a tool and die job shop and now provides custom designed and built equipment, automated systems, contract manufacturing of high performance cables and electromechanical assemblies, and precision dies and stampings. JADE serves customers in a wide variety of industries and supplies equipment solutions for companies worldwide. With a renewed and improved apprentice program, JADE is welcoming new employees onto the shop floor and into the classroom.

"The apprentice program will enable JADE to maintain its reputation for quality, innovation and on-time delivery, while bringing a new level of energy into the company," says John Delp, Vice President of Operations for JADE and a former apprentice. "Introducing young, eager workers into the program is a Win-Win-Win situation. Existing and newer employees, the company, and customers all benefit."

The toolmakers at JADE are skilled craftsmen, most with more than 20 years of machining and custom equipment build experience. More than seventy percent (70%) of these craftsmen graduated from JADE's original apprentice program. The new program, modeled after the original apprentice program, will introduce interested high school graduates to the opportunities and skills necessary to forge a career in the manufacturing industry. A four-year, 8000 hour curriculum stresses the need for quality and exposes students to a variety of manufacturing specialties. Students study a complete range of topics, including tool crib, benchwork, milling, grinding, jig boring, lathe, maintenance, welding/sheet metal, EDM, engineering/design, process engineering and materials management. Apprentices gain valuable people skills, work habits, in-depth knowledge of what customer satisfaction means, and overall maturity and integrity.

Upon completion of the program, students identify one or more areas in which to concentrate. They work toward becoming experts in their field while retaining a working knowledge of other specialty areas and their relation to and affect on the overall business. Graduates exit the program with a marketable set of skills, a position within The JADE Corporation, and the opportunity to advance within the company.

Rick Huckfeldt is a CNC Programmer/Operator and graduate of JADE's apprentice program. "I'm glad to see the program coming back," says Huckfeldt. "I have a good career and know that I am better at what I do because of the experience gained through the program. I now have the skills and knowledge necessary to pursue almost any position within the company."

To apply, prospective apprentices must complete a written application, participate in a personal interview and take an aptitude test designed to measure their potential relative to the manufacturing industry. These tests illustrate to the applicants what the job entails. A selection committee then reviews the information and test results to identify the qualified candidates. Applicants should be high school graduates with a positive attitude, good work ethic, strong mathematical skills and mechanical ability.

Interested in a new career? The JADE Corporation is looking for fresh faces with new and exciting ideas, willing and eager to learn from the experienced craftsmen of JADE. To obtain more information or apply to the program, contact John Delp, at (215) 947-3333.