Photo Courtesy of Governor’s Office.
September 18, 2018. Danko Arlington is excited to reactivate its CNC machinist apprenticeship program with the Maryland Apprenticeship and Training Program (MATC). The company’s machinist apprenticeship has been dormant for twenty-two years. Originally established in 1940, Danko Arlington’s apprenticeships are some of the oldest in Maryland — established after Congress passed the FDR administration’s National Apprenticeship Act also known as the Fitzgerald Act in 1937. Coincidentally, MATC personnel recently came across a parental permission slip from 1940 allowing a twelve-year old boy to enroll in company’s apprenticeship for patternmaking. How times have changed.
Changed indeed, particularly as the new eight-thousand-hour machinist program not only includes three and five-axis robotic machining, but training in 3-D plastic and sand printing, supplemented with online education from the Society of Manufacturing Engineer’s Tooling University (Tooling U-SME). The hybrid machinist/additive manufacturing apprenticeship is perhaps one of the first of its kind in the USA. Danko Arlington has been working exclusively with Maryland Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MDMEP) to rebuild this state-of-the-art program.
The company’s reinstatement at the September MATC council meeting coincided with a surprise visit by Governor Larry Hogan to celebrate Maryland’s 10,000th registered apprentice – the highest since 2008. Already in 2018, Maryland has twenty-three new programs created and eleven programs reactivated – the most since 2003. Unlike those days when a college education was perceived as the only way to earn higher wages, apprenticeships today offer a speedy, debt-free pathway to lucrative careers, particularly in today’s high-tech manufacturing.
“Today, we have more registered apprentices in Maryland than we have had in a decade, strengthening our workforce and boosting the competitiveness of our state economy,” said Governor Hogan. “This incredible achievement demonstrates our administration’s commitment.
Danko Arlington is honored to reinstate its program and train Maryland’s next generation.
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