CNC Programmer
Work-Based Learning Program:
Info for Companies

Do You Need CNC Programmers?  

We’re Recruiting & Training Youth Right Now To Fill Your Needs – Your Current Employees and/or New Hires
Ontario’s advanced manufacturing industry is growing. We’re adding full-time, well-paid jobs month over month, and exports continue to increase for innovative, competitive ‘Made in Canada’ goods. But many Ontario advanced manufacturing companies are finding it hard to get skilled people to meet their growing production schedules.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in the talent shortage of capable CNC Programmers.

That’s where we come in. We are the WBLC, and we’ve created an industry-led consortium to tackle this challenge head on.

We are inviting advanced manufacturing companies like yours to participate in the CNC Programmer Selection and Learning Program – an industry-led program designed to upgrade the skills and knowledge of your current youth employees who have the potential to become good CNC Programmers. Alternatively, we will find talented and hardworking youth who have the right ‘aptitudes and attitudes’ for this job and connect them with you, to be hired and trained as a CNC Programmer.

Is This Your Organization?

  • Do you need capable CNC Programmers to meet production demand and get your orders to your customers 100% on time and 100% to spec?
  • Do you have CNC equipment that is running below capacity or inefficiently because you can’t hire the capable CNC Programmers you need?
  • Are you finding the recruiting process too time-consuming and painful?
  • Do you experience high drop-out rates when you try to hire and train on your own?
  • Is your HR team open to trying something new that will introduce you to great candidates you would not normally see?
  • Do you have experienced CNC Programmers who could be great trainers for your trainees – if they had the right support and a solid training program to guide them?
  • Would you like to hire people that have the right personal competencies, attitudes, aptitudes, and initiative?
  • Would you like to have an industry-developed learning program to help you train CNC Programmers?
  • Would you like to have government funding to help offset the costs on on-the-job learning?

If you answered yes to many of the questions above, then participating in the WBLC CNC Programmer Selection and Learning Program is right for your company!

The CNC Programmer Work-Based Learning Program -Good for Business!

The CNC Programmer Learning Selection and Learning Program has been designed to help companies like yours:

  • select current employees and/or hire new ones with confidence – getting the right candidates into needed CNC Programmer trainee roles
  • cut training / onboarding time by 50% by leveraging the industry-developed WBLC learning program
  • cut training costs by 50% by using the proven WBLC learning management process
  • access a $2,570 financial incentive per Certified trainee that contributes towards your costs for training e.g., trainer’s time instructing and coaching the trainee, conducting progress reviews, lower throughput while trainees are coming up to speed

Check out all the companies that have participaterd in WBLC learning programs >

The Results Speak for Themselves –
Our First Five Years!

Work-Based Learning requires commitment from all sides to achieve success.  While this is a new and innovative way for employers to meet their skills shortage challenges, companies who have participated in a WBLC program are extremely happy with the results they are seeing in their new hires or upskills.

In the first 5 years (2014-2018), Work-Based Learning programs delivered the following results:

  • 5 WBL programs developed and delivered
  • over 50 companies participated in one or more WBL programs
  • over 50% of participating companies took part in more than one program or one Intake
  • over 550 Trainees were trained via a WBL program in 48 intakes
  • over 90% of completing trainees achieved their WBLC Certification for their skilled job
  • over 95% of Certified graduates of a WBL program continued their employment with their participating company

How It Works

WBLC Recruits & Attracts Job Seekers to Apply for The Program

Working with our WBLC Employment Service Provider partners and Manpower, through the news media, this website, and other channels – we encourage job seekers who fit the right profile – the right personal characteristics, aptitudes and attitudes for a CNC Programmer – to apply.

We provide detailed information on the program, the job, the equipment, and the process – so they have a good overview of the CNC Programmer role.

WBLC Staffing Partner (Manpower Group) Tests & Interviews Applicants

Manpower Group, our Staffing Partner, interviews and tests candidates per the WBLC Candidate Assessment Process.  They put the applicants through a rigorous testing and interviewing process:

      • First, eligible applicants are initially assessed by completing a 60-minute online test consisting of 3 separate assessments. These tests reliably identify the Applicant’s competency level on those job-specific essential employability competencies that are directly related to success on the job.
      • Second, applicants that pass the first assessment are invited to an extensive, structured interview designed by WBLC and administered by Manpower that consists only of questions that focus directly on the competencies required to be successful in the job. The Applicant’s manual dexterity is also assessed.

Based on the objective data from these tests and structured interviews plus input from Manpower, WBLC decides which Applicants to select as Candidate Trainees to proceed to interviews with participating companies.

Manpower then matches the Candidate Trainees and the participating companies on the basis of location, transportation, work environment, etc. and makes the arrangements for your company to interview appropriate Candidate Trainees.

Your Company Interviews the Selected Candidates

Your company interviews the selected Candidate Trainees and shows them around your facilities.  You will receive a Summary of the results from the WBLC Assessment Process in advance so you can be prepared for a great interview /  discussion with your candidate(s).  You will also receive the WBLC Interview Guidelines, to help you confirm our findings about the Candidate Trainees you are interviewing.

The WBLC Assessment Process gives you very reliable assurance that you will be interviewing only Candidate Trainees who truly do have the required ‘aptitudes and attitudes’ to learn the technical requirements of the job and be productive, valuable employees.  This means that your ‘Interview to Hire Ratio’ will be dramatically lower than normal – no more than 2:1 or 3:1.

Your Company Hires One Or More Candidates

When you identify the Candidate Trainee(s) you want to hire and train as a CNC Programmer, you advise Manpower Group, make a job offer to the selected Candidate Trainee(s) and sign them up.

Upon hiring the Candidate Trainee, your company will begin to pay their wage/salary for the duration of the Program.  Usually, their first day of work is the start of the WBL program, but it can be earlier, at your discretion.

At the end of the program, we anticipate confidently that you will wish to continue to employ the successfully certified CNC CNC Programmers in your company.

WBLC Will Provide e-Learning + Classroom Training

Trainees will acquire the basic theoretical knowledge and basic practical skills for their job through a combination of e/Learning (delivered online at your workplace) plus limited classroom training (2-3 weeks in total).

This basic learning is distributed throughout the first half of the program as the Trainee progresses

The basic theoretical knowledge and basic practical skills (competencies) acquired by trainees include all the following topics:

  • Manufacturing Terminology
  • Types of CNC Machine
  • CNC Machine Operations
  • Machine Maintenance Practices
  • Blueprint Reading
  • Applied Math
  • Materials
  • Tools
  • Measurement
  • Cutting Fluids
  • Workplace Safety

Your Company Will Provide Approximately 26 weeks of On-the-Job Training

Your company will provide one or more Trainers – experienced, capable CNC Programmers – to work with your Trainee(s).

The Trainer will guide and coach the Trainee(s) in acquiring all the competencies specified per the Technical Learning Outcomes for the job, and be responsible for making sure the Trainee(s) is(are) progressing towards mastering them all by the end of the on-the-job training period – or earlier.

WBLC Will Assess & Certify Successful Trainees –
Now Capable & Productive Employees

As Trainees progress towards the completion of their WBL program, WBLC will test and assess the Trainee’s mastery of the Technical Learning Outcomes for the job and, if acceptable, certify the Trainee(s) as a CNC Progrmmer based on:

  • the Trainee’s successful passing of tests administered during the e-learning and classroom training
  • the Trainee’s demonstrating to our WBLC Assessor that he / she can carry out cnc machining operations as per work orders, drawings and process instructions
  • the Trainee’s demonstration of knowledge of general manufacturing technical practices and procedures and knowledge of specific technical work practices regarding cnc machining, via an on-line examination.

And at this point, your company will have added one or more great WBLC Certified CNC Programmers who can continue to be productive, valuable, promotable employees who can advance their career with your company and contribute to your greater business success going forward.

Ready To Get Started?