On Sat, 05 Aug 2006 19:20:21 GMT, "CW" wrote:

A little background. I'm the foreman of a small machine shop. Business has
been picking up greatly and we are in need of machinists. We are having very
little luck in finding qualified people and when we find someone that seems
promising, it generally turns out that they are no more than a machine
operator. Able to set up and operate a CNC (usually a vertical mill) but no
more, nor do they want to do more. We have gotten to the point of training
people into the position. We have gone through a number of them. Many, when
they find out that it is real work and they can't just stop thinking and
show up to work on autopilot after a month or two, either quit or become
worthless to the point that they get fired. We have two trainees in the shop
right now. One is female (extremely rare in this trade). She never made it
through high school but has a GED. I'm finding that she has a great learning
ability and enthusiasm. It is quite obvious that her problems in school were
due to boredom. To get her math skills up to par, I have been giving her
homework. She has been doing quite well now that she sees a need. To bad
someone couldn't have instilled a real world need in her in school. She'd be
that much further ahead. The other trainee, a male, just out of high school,
made a comment the other day that really struck me. He said "I took
trigonometry for two years and thought it would never be good for anything.
Then, the first job I get, I need it".

Im a CNC machine tool repair guy. I front for a couple manufactures, do
repair of their machines, do infrastructure repair (air/electical etc
etc) and there are two types of "machinist".

1. Actually involved in setting up and performing operations, able to do
design and determine if the machine is optimal etc etc

2. Button pushers. Somone who loads parts, pushes a button, takes
measurements, maybe changes offsets, but basically a human parts loader.

#1 is very very hard to find
#2 is very very easy to find, and in Southern California..is nearly 50%
female, with many learning to be rated in Catagory #1

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner