(upbeat music) - When you kind of walk first in those doors and you see just the belts going everywhere, you see these machines, you see all these Pop-Tarts and NutriGrain bars, all the just perfectly being wrapped up and cartoned and sent out to people across the United States.

It's honestly kind of an exciting feeling.

(bright music) We run this factory 24/7.

The easiest way to describe my job would be to make sure machines don't break or when they do break, we get them fixed.

(bright music continues) All right, so we just got a page to line two Case Packer C, so we're gonna go see what the operator needs.

Ever since I was a kid, I always enjoyed working with my hands.

Legos, for example, like a toy that you always have to take apart and put back together.

My family's always had a mechanical background.

My father's worked at this plant for 27 years now in the maintenance department, so he was an inspiration to start pursuing, you know, a maintenance background.

As I got older through high school, I decided I was gonna go ahead and I was gonna pursue firearms technology.

I worked in that industry for a good two to three years, and I wanted to pursue a more stable career.

(bright music continues) First thing I do when I show up is you wanna make sure to put your locks on it.

You wanna make sure you're properly locked out, tagged out so there's no safety incident.

Lockout tag out means that the machine is off by a lock, so there's no way it could be energized while you're working on it.

I think people get this idea when they hear apprentice that like you don't really do much.

You just kind of like stand back and like watch more or less, which is not the case here.

Now that the machine's locked out and tagged out, we can safely enter.

Apprentices are expected to be very hands-on.

And we're gonna be going ahead and this cylinder is bad.

It's not extending and retracting the way it should.

So we're gonna go ahead and pull it and replace it.

You know, when there's an issue, when we diagnose that issue, you're expected to be the one to fix it.

The mechanic's there to help guide you and he's not gonna let you make a mistake, but you know, you need to be the one with your hands on to learn.

Watching isn't gonna solve any problems.

(bright music continues) What I enjoy the most about this job is having a troublesome task in front of you and thinking to yourself, "Oh man, I have no idea what I'm gonna do here."

And then before you know it, you've worked your way through it and you're like, "Wow, you know what?

That wasn't so bad and I could totally do that again."

You know, and now you've successfully learned how to complete a relatively more complex task.

It's something you can tuck under your belt.

(bright music continues) All right, so this is the chain gauge.

This is to make sure that your chains are inspect and they're not stretched out too far.

If you have a chain stretched out too far, it could cause issues across the whole machines.

You don't necessarily need any kind of specific education to start in a role like this.

The idea of the apprenticeship is to build your skill set with the mechanics here for the job you will be doing.

This is a fin seal assembly and we're taking it apart to do some preventative maintenance to it.

It's getting worn.

You see there's some marks here on the contacts.

Brushes are getting worn down, so it's just time to go ahead and preventative maintenance work on it so it doesn't fail on the floor when we need it.

We are sent to PCT to be able to learn a mechatronics degree.

(bright music continues) The mechatronics degree is great because it covers a mechanical, electrical, covers PLC, which is programmable logic controllers, but it's not necessary at all.

You can come here with, you know, just a basic mechanical knowledge and you will have enough of a foundation that we can absolutely grow on it here, especially through the apprentice program.

(bright music continues) So the fin seal, it makes this bottom seal you see right here on the Pop-Tart by running in between these two wheels and it heats up, gets nice and hot, seals it together.

Make sure it stays fresh.

I had recently bought a motorcycle and I needed to move the turn signals to make room for saddle bags and it required rewiring the turn signals.

Me, two years ago, I didn't know anything about electrical.

I wouldn't have even touched that, but now I went ahead and did it in no time in my garage.

It's not just skills you learn for the job, it's skills you can take home and apply to your own personal life.

So you get here and you see this huge factory, lines running everywhere and you don't know what any of it does, but you just take on it like you take any challenge in life.

Just go at it one little piece at a time, but before you know it, you've got the whole picture in no time.

(bright music continues) It's honestly kind of an exciting feeling.

You're like, all right, you know, I get to work hands-on and make sure none of this stops.

You know, I'm the one that gets to be responsible for making sure everything just keeps running as intended.

(bright music fades)