Tomorrow’s Talent: Apprenticeships train workers for the future and fill job vacancies now

MANSFIELD — Luke Barnett likes tool and die machining for the same reason he enjoyed jigsaw puzzles as a boy.

“I saw that as a challenge. I look at this the same way,” said Barnett, a graduate of Buckeye Central High School and Pioneer Career and Technology Center.

“Every little piece has a place where it needs to go. In the programming, if you don’t follow all those particular steps, you could crash the machine.”

Barnett has worked for Hess Industries, a tool and die shop in Mansfield, since he was hired on as an apprentice in 2010.

“There’s a lot of good things about going through the apprenticeship,” he said. “You’re getting your school paid for, but you’re also learning a lifetime skill that pretty much sets you up for an entire career. It’s well worth it.”

Barnett got his journeyman’s card in 2015 and stuck around because he enjoys the job and the small shop atmosphere. He said he takes pride in every part he makes — each a unique puzzle to solved.

“It’s pretty fun. There’s never a dull moment,” he said. “Everything is a learning experience.”

Apprentices get paid to learn

Apprenticeships can be a win-win situation for companies and their workers. Apprentices get a paycheck, on-the-job training and the chance to enter a new career field without taking on college debt. Employers get motivated and highly-skilled workers trained in their company’s specific culture and procedures.

Mark Hess estimated at least a dozen people have gone through Hess Industries’ apprenticeship program since the company’s founding a quarter century ago.

Hess said he instituted an apprenticeship program because he knew firsthand the positive impact it could have. His own tool and die career began in 1986 with an apprenticeship at Taylor Metal Products. Hess had just graduated from Pioneer Career and Technology Center. Postsecondary education wasn’t really on his radar, but his boss, Dick Taylor, insisted he enroll at North Central State College.

Hess went on to get not just his journeyman’s card, but a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering.

“I’ve always wanted to thank Dick in a way for investing in me and give that opportunity to others,” Hess said.

Every apprentice works full-time at Hess Industries while taking classes at North Central State. The company covers the cost of classes needed to become a journeyman, including tuition, books, computers and fees.

“Essentially, it’s a full-ride scholarship paired with a four-year paid internship,” Hess said.

“In my eyes, this is actually better than a four-year college degree because now you have two years college in a four to five year period, but you also have the hands-on experience and you have four years’ of work experience with zero debt.”

While offering an apprenticeship program does come with costs, Hess said he considers it a worthwhile investment. Several apprentices have remained with the company after their four-year apprenticeship ended. Others went on to be positive contributors to the community in other ways — working for neighboring manufacturers or starting their own business.

Plus, it’s an effective recruitment tool.

“We don’t have a problem with hiring,” Hess said. “We have a line of people that want to come to work here and be part of this opportunity.”

‘This is a prime example of what we’re willing to do for our employees’

Hess Industries isn’t the only business in town using apprenticeships to recruit young talent.

Adena Corporation launched a two-year apprenticeship program in January in an effort to address the industrywide construction worker shortage. The company hired new employees to create and run the program.

“We need skilled trades (workers) bad. It’s hard to find them out there,” said Trent Hovis, Adena’s apprenticeship program manager and a former high school career tech teacher.

“Anymore, you either build them or you buy them. So we decided to bite the bullet, have the investment and start building this thing.”

At Adena, apprentices are full-time employees who spend every other Friday in the classroom rather than on a job site. Rather than attend college classes, apprentices attend Adena University — a former yoga studio behind the company’s headquarters.

One half of the building houses a classroom. The other is a workshop with an ongoing class project — a nearly completed miniature house.

In order to begin the program, Adena had several senior employees get certified to teach through the National Center for Construction Education and Research. Apprentices are able to earn NCCER certifications by completing the coursework.

“The teachers, these are foremen and superintendents that have been in the field,” said Tiffany Poloschan, Adena’s workforce development program coordinator.

“They go through their training, they get their certification, and then when they’re actually teaching material, they embrace it and they have their own styles, which is really neat to see.”

Apprentice carpenter Wyatt Darling has worked for Adena for the last five and half years. He said he’s learned more than he expected to in his first eight months of the apprenticeship program.

“The foremen have more time to stop and talk and teach how to do specific things, instead of just learning on the go,” Darling said.

“It’s kind of cool to see all the different people come in and teach their specific trade. Some people are better at concrete than drywall so we get a mixture of everybody.”

Hovis said Adena chose to pilot its apprenticeship program with existing employees, but will likely offer it to new hires in the future. In addition to bringing on more carpenters, he plans to introduce an ironworking apprenticeship next year.

Hovis’ goal is to eventually add between six to ten apprentices to the company’s ranks each year, with the hope that they remain at Adena long-term.

“Those kids that are about to graduate, they want an employer to invest in them. All of us do,” he said.

“Everybody wants to work for somebody that’s going to invest in them. This is a prime example of what the Adena is willing to do for their employees.”

Strong apprenticeship programs start with in-school connections

While running an apprenticeship program requires time and resources, finding ideal candidates may be an even bigger investment.

“It’s not all peachy,” Hess said. “It requires a lot of work and a lot of dedication and finding the right fits.”

Hess said the qualities he looks for in an apprentice are the same ones he looks for in any other employee — a good work ethic, critical thinking skills and a willingness to learn.

He said one of the best ways to find those types of employees is to get involved with career tech programs at area high schools.

“It all starts with their sophomore orientation. We are part of the orientation every year,” he said. “If they decide to go to Pioneer their junior and senior year, we’re building relationships with them, helping them with projects.”

Hess has also served on advisory boards at Pioneer, North Central State College and the Ohio State Univeristy’s Mansfield campus.

“There’s not going to be huge rewards from that from the very beginning,” he said. “But the time investing in giving back to the students eventually pays off.”

That was the case for Tyler Duckworth, a Lexington High School graduate who studied precision machining technologies at Pioneer.

“I worked here through the entire last semester of my senior year and I was pretty much locked in on working here at that point,” he said.

Tool and die work appealed to Duckworth, who enjoys problem-solving and working with his hands. He became a Hess apprentice after graduating high school in the spring of 2024.

“I’ve learned lots of things from all the guys in there, even the other apprentices who’ve been here for longer than me,” he said.

“Everybody tries to help you out. The older guys, they actually like when you ask questions because they get to teach you their own way. Everybody has their own way of doing things. I ask questions from everybody and see how everybody else does a certain task, so I can formulate my own way of doing things.”

Vetting apprentice applicants is crucial for top ROI

Businesses like Hess Industries and Adena regularly hire career tech students on early job release, but prior experience with the company isn’t enough to automatically qualify for an apprenticeship.

At Hess, every apprentice goes through a probationary period and starts out doing some grunt work.

“I can tell a lot about them in the first month that they’re working here,” Hess said.

“If you can’t wipe the machine down properly and follow instructions with that, when you get into doing a precision machine block, you’re not gonna be able follow instructions on that as well.”

Hovis said Adena also vets its apprentices — even ones already employed with the company.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re right off the street or a current employee, we’re gonna vet you. We’re gonna interview you for it. There’s gonna be an application process,” he said.

“There needs to be a buy in. We want people that are committed to seeing this thing through, to bettering themselves and their skills.”

Hess said he’s worked out a pretty air-tight method for evaluating apprentices during their probation period, although there have been exceptions.

“We’ve had apprentices that have gone through three years of their apprenticeship and decide that this wasn’t for them,” Hess said.

Nevertheless, the risk has paid off more times than not.

“I’ve been wrong on a couple of them, but not very many,” Hess said. “You invest in them, you communicate to them how you would like them to work, how you’d like to see them grow and mature and a lot of times, we will see that change. It’s a lot of fun.”