GF Agie Charmilles congratulates Mark Evangelist from Stellar Precision Components on winning the 2009 NTMA/NIMS National Apprentice Competition. Mr. Evangelist is a fourth year apprentice at Stellar Precision Components, which is located in Jeannette, Pennsylvania. GF AgieCharmilles sponsored the competition’s Grand Prize for the 19th straight year, awarding Stellar Precision with a 30% discount off the purchase price of select models of AgieCharmilles EDM or high-speed milling machines.
Held on April 16-17 at the Ivy Tech campus in Indianapolis, the National Apprentice Competition featured the country’s top eight regional champions. Over the course of two days, the apprentices performed projects on lathes, mills and precision grinders, along with taking a comprehensive written exam.
“GF AgieCharmilles has a long history of involvement in workforce development in the US,” says Glynn Fletcher, President of GF AgieCharmilles. “We are proud to continue that tradition through our annual involvement in the NTMA/NIMS National Apprentice Competition and congratulate Mr. Evangelist on taking the top honors among a very competitive group of participants.”
In addition to the 30% discount on a machine purchase, the Grand Prize package provided by Agie Charmilles also includes additional savings on tools and accessories. Depending on the package chosen, the total prize value can exceed $100,000.
For the third straight year, the top three competitors were also presented with a 10-day, expenses-paid trip to Switzerland. Josh Geschke of MAG Giddings & Lewis in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and Andrew Warren of Six Sigma, Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky will join Mr. Evangelist on the trip, which will include visits to various Swiss machine shops and machine tool makers. For the third year, Harry Moser, GF AgieCharmilles Chairman, will guide the apprentices on the trip. The first trip provided the motivation for the NTMA 6S Program which is motivating U.S. shops to raise their average housekeeping level to a “Swiss” standard to strengthen skilled employee retention and recruitment, productivity and sales. The trip is part of ‘Think Swiss’, a program involving the Embassy or Switzerland, Swiss Consulates and the Swiss Trade Commission in the US.
For more information on the NTMA or the National Apprentice Competition, please visit http://www.ntma.org/.