Okuma's Apprenticeship Program Provides a Steady Stream of Talent

This month Okuma America celebrates the graduation of the second group of students enrolled in our Apprenticeship Program - they'll follow in the footsteps of our first class, who graduated in 2016. This program, which runs every even year, is designed to proactively train workers who eventually join the ranks as Okuma employees.

Sunny Cavanah (pictured above) graduated as part of the Class of 2016, and is currently working as a Field Service Tech Level 1. The apprenticeship program gave Sunny a fast-track to a rewarding career path, plus it provides Okuma with a steady stream of well-qualified talent to help support the needs of our customers. We sat down with Sunny recently to capture his thoughts on how the program works, and how everyone benefits. Please enjoy our Q & A with him below.

When you joined Okuma's Apprenticeship Program in 2016, what kind of skills did you already have?

At that time, I had some electrical experience and a PLC certification, which helped me to qualify for the program.

How does the training program work?

We spent the first six months at the Okuma Training Institute at York Technical College, in Charlotte. This was a classroom-style setting and we learned about various mechanical aspects of Okuma CNC machines, such as how to take turrets and spindles apart, how to troubleshoot, checking voltage, mask I/O, how to determine what an alarm is, and how to break down the alarms.

After that, we did some hands-on training with the topics we'd learned about in class. This is where York Tech is really valuable, because they have a nice selection of parts from new and older machine tools that we could use. In fact, because they have so many resources, York Tech is also the place our distributors use for training.

What was the biggest challenge during your internship?

At first it was a bit challenging getting to know a new and different industry. But I found that if you just stick with it, eventually you'll start to catch on, and you can ramp up pretty easily.

What was the most enjoyable part of your apprenticeship?

The classes were fun, especially when we covered the electrical parts. I enjoy working with the electrical cabinets, doing troubleshooting, reading schematics, working with the controls...all of that is very interesting to me.

What are you currently working on at Okuma?

Right now I'm part of the Service team focused on installing double columns, which is keeping us pretty busy these days.

What are you planning in terms of your career - do you want to continue your path working in Service?

Yes, right now, my main goal is to keep growing and adding to my skills in Service. It's a lot of fun! The lifestyle you get involved with is a bit like serving in the military. You travel a lot, you see a lot of places, meet a lot of people and learn a lot. Every situation is different, and I enjoy that kind of variety from day to day.

What's your opinion of Okuma machine tools?

Well, I think Okuma machine tools are top-of-the-line. We talk with customers, and often they have different types of machines, but they always really like their Okumas. They know they're going to last longer and hold tolerances better than most of the other machines they have.

I notice many customers getting rid of their old machines and bringing in Okumas to replace them. They know an Okuma is going to be a good quality machine tool, they're not going to have problems with downtime, and they can run it as much as they want.

What do you think about Okuma as a company?

Well, I love it. It's a great company to work for. They make sure they take care of their employees, and they think about what we need. They pay attention to helping us grow both professionally and personally, and I'm grateful for all the knowledge I've gained while working here.

I also really enjoy working with our distributors. They’re extremely knowledgeable about their local markets, and they help me find my way around. They know their customers very well and have extensive knowledge about our machine tools.

In your experience so far, what's your favorite part of your job?

I really enjoy the travel and meeting all kinds of people. I like to see new places, so I get excited when I'm assigned to a state or a city I've never visited before. I get to experience so many new and different things, and I really enjoy that.

Any final thoughts you'd like to share?

We look forward to welcoming the graduates from the Apprenticeship Program Class of 2018 to the team! They'll be joining us in the field next month, in January. It's always nice to work together as team, getting new Okumas installed for our customers.

Interested in a career at Okuma? Visit our careers page.