Education is one of the core values that Morrison Container Handling Solutions has always held. Helping to promote continuing education in the community is something we believe is important to always be a part of at Morrison.
So, the newest partnership Morrison made with OAI and Purdue University Northwest made perfect sense. This apprenticeship program organized by OAI and PNW aims to partner the future workforce looking for entry-level roles within technical industries. The program, which is a hybrid of classroom learning, online classes, and on-the-job training, helps to develop the manufacturing workforce and helps companies retain employees.
We’re happy to introduce our new team members and excited to bring them onto the Morrison team.
Q: What’s your position here at Morrison?
A: Right now, I’m an apprentice training to be a field service technician. I’m learning the assembly part and then the troubleshooting a little bit: watching stuff going through the machines, trying to figure out we can better prevent it or try to get it to go a little smoother.
Q: What’s something interesting you’re hoping to learn or gain from this apprenticeship?
A: Just all the nuances of the engineering, the assembly, the design of it. Putting everything together and watching how things that you designed, or you saw designed work, or seeing how things might not work and troubleshooting to find a way around it.
Q: What’s something you’ve already learned?
A: Part of that, partially. Also that everything’s not as simple as it might look at first. Sometimes it looks like you might just need to put a screw in or join two things but really you have to measure a whole lot of things, put something in between it, do something like that.
Q: Name one thing you like about the day-to-day here at Morrison?
A: It’s always something different, it’s never the same thing, and it’s always something interesting. Even if you are working on the same thing for like two or three days, it’s like you’re progressing throughout your day. You see yourself getting to an end goal which is always good to feel accomplished at the end of your day.
Q: What brought you to the packaging or manufacturing industry?
A: I always wanted to be in engineering or working with my hands building stuff. In high school, I took classes where I could work with my hands and build like robots or planes, 3D printed objects, stuff like that. So working with my hands and seeing what I’m doing come to fruition is always something that has intrigued me ever since I was really little. So when I heard about this, Morrison - this company, I did some research, watched some videos, and I thought it would be perfect for me
Q: What’re some hobbies you’re interested in?
A: Of course, I’m 6’4”/6’5” so I like to play basketball. Baseball is actually my favorite sport though so if I can get some friends, I’ll throw a ball around with them. I play video games. Right now, I’m actually building a popsicle stick house. When I was younger, I always wanted to build custom houses, so it’s gonna be a minute until I can do that for real in the real world, so I just wanted to do a little one.
DeMarco Smith
Q: What’s your position here at Morrison?
A: I’m a field service technician apprentice. It’s someone who’s trained to eventually ascend to field service technician, right now I'm learning the fundamentals needed in order to do so.
Q: What’s something you’ve already learned?
A: I’ve learned that you should pay attention to everything. For the most part, I’ve learned to be patient. I’ve learned to read diagrams a lot better. I’ve learned to apply math to a lot of things. The important stuff: figuring out outer diameter and pitch for the conveyor belt - things like that. A lot of stuff that I’ve been going over in school is actually being applied, and I enjoy that.
Q: What’s something interesting you’re hoping to learn or gain from this apprenticeship?
A: Modification and fabrication, probably more so modification. Modifying things is something I want to be interested in because it’s part of the troubleshooting process. I want to know everything in depth and the nuances that go with that.
Q: Name one thing you like about the day-to-day here at Morrison?
A: Oh it’s busy. There’s always something to do and everyone is willing to teach you, and there’s always something to learn. There’s guys who’ve been here years who’re still learning something new, they’re always getting surprised by something. I love it.
Q: What brought you to the packaging or manufacturing industry?
A: I started out with the military when I was 18, and my job was a mechanic. That’s how I got introduced to using my hands and learning mechanics and tools of that nature. It’s always been something that’s my forte.
Q: What’re some hobbies you’re interested in?
A: Anime, video games. What do I like to play? Everything. Right now I’m playing Ghost of Tsushima and I finally got a patch for Cyberpunk so I’ve been getting back into that. Love it, Keanu was funny.
Javon Turner
Q: What’s your position here at Morrison?
A: A mechanical technician, I build machines and do assembly.
Q: What’s something interesting you’re hoping to learn or gain from this apprenticeship?
A: Really just learning how to make stuff. Most of my life I haven’t really made much: I was a pharmacy tech, cook, stuff like that. I don’t have a lot of experience, hands on. Something I want to learn from this job would probably be just to be able to build stuff. One thing I’d want to learn besides all this already is probably how to read the blueprints better.
Q: What’s something you’ve already learned?
A: I’ve learned a lot about assembly. Prior to my experience now, when I go home and my mom can do stuff and I can help her. I actually get a lot done a lot quicker and a lot easier. Especially when you read those blueprints or a normal manual it’s way easier. I’ve learned a lot of hands on stuff.
Q: Name one thing you like about the day-to-day here at Morrison?
A: Subassembly. I like the big assembly stuff but it’s those periods where we have to stop when we’re missing a piece of a part, but with subassembly I’m able to just keeping going through from A to Z all the way through. So I actually like subassembly a lot more and I learned a lot from disassembling and assembling stuff in subassembly more than I did on assembly. If I do subassembly straight through, that’s a good day to me.
Q: How did you find this apprenticeship?
A: Actually the mechanical assembly part I wasn’t looking for, I applied to work with timing screws but I was referred through [a current Morrison employee]. When I applied, it was just to do the timing screw thing but I got a call like “Oh, are you interested in this?” and we’ve been going from there with OAI. So I didn’t really choose it, it chose me but I love it.
Q: What’re some hobbies you’re interested in?
A: Hobbies outside of building? I’m a gamer. Warzone, Black Desert, Elder Scrolls, everything MMOs. When I’m not building something I’m usually playing games.
