Will Sampson talks about the importance of on-the-job training. His guest is Kelly Victor Burke, co-founder and co-owner of Burke Architectural Millwork and Bespoke Closets in Livonia, Michigan. She has been instrumental in establishing a nationally recognized apprenticeship program for woodworking. Now she’s at it again with a new program specifically for installers.
This episode of the Woodworking Network podcast was sponsored by FDMC magazine. FDMC magazine is your vital source of information to improve your woodworking business. Whether it is keeping you apprised of the latest advances in manufacturing, helping you solve your wood technology problems with Gene Wengert, or inspiring you with case histories about successful businesses and best practices, FDMC magazine is there to be the sharpest business tool in your shop. Learn more and subscribe for free at woodworkingnetwork.com/fdmc.
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Intro music courtesy of Anthony Monson.
Intro:
Welcome to this episode of the Woodworking Network Podcast. Join us as we explore the business of woodworking big and small and what it takes to succeed. I’m Will Sampson.
Today’s episode is sponsored by FDMC magazine. Today my guest today is Kelly Victor Burke, co-founder and co-owner of Burke Architectural Millwork and Bespoke Closets in Livonia, Michigan. She has been instrumental in establishing a nationally recognized apprenticeship program for woodworking. Now she’s at it again with a new program. But first I want to talk about:
On-the-job training
There’s been lots of discussion over the last few years about steering young people away from vocational education and into four-year degrees. That has shortchanged a lot of students who frequently ended up spending too much money on an education that failed to deliver on a successful career.
Some of that has to do with the way people learn. Some folks can absorb everything books and classrooms have to offer, but others need to do things with their hands to really learn. At least that’s how the academics shape the difference. But I think there is a more important kind of learning that has been overlooked.
No matter how good you do in a classroom or how well you work with your hands in a school shop, the real career learning takes place on the job. I constantly hear shop owners tell me that they have better luck training new hires with little or no experience than they do with people who have come out of a two- or four-year academic program.
I’ve also been disheartened by stories of college “internships” in which students are little more than unpaid flunkies in some corporate setting with not much to show in real job experience at the end of the internship.
What’s really missing is the classic apprenticeship in which people are paid to learn a job by doing real work and steadily taking on more responsibilities as they learn more skills. Usually that learning takes place in close proximity to industry veterans who share their experience with the newcomer, helping them grow in ways directly related to the work at hand.
I don’t care if we are talking about manufacturing, the trades, engineering, or business management, all of those careers would benefit from true apprenticeships, mentoring, and a clear career path, apprentice-to-journeyman-to master.
No academic program I have ever heard of really teaches the “tricks of the trade” that every career is built on. The insiders’ secrets that can only be learned by doing. I was working as a reporter for a local newspaper when I was still in high school. When I announced that I would be leaving to attend college for journalism, the business manager of the paper gave me some advice I have never forgotten. “It’s great that you are going to college,” he said. “But you won’t really start learning about the newspaper business until the day you get back on the job.”
I had a great college experience with great teachers, but largely he was right. Perhaps more important than my journalism education was the business education I got starting two businesses that paid for my college degree but had nothing to do with journalism.
On-the-job training is the best training, and it pays dividends to both the new worker and the employer.
FDMC magazine is your vital source of information to improve your woodworking business. Whether it is keeping you apprised of the latest advances in manufacturing, helping you improve efficiency with lean manufacturing guru Brad Cairns, or inspiring you with case histories about successful businesses and best practices, FDMC magazine is there to be the sharpest business tool in your shop. Learn more and subscribe for free at woodworkingnetwork.com/fdmc.
Now, let’s talk with Kelly.