Before he started to work in what he calls a “huge chemistry lab — like a high school chemistry lab and blowing it up on a huge scale”— Mac McMahan served as a Phoenix Raven, specially trained to provide security in high terrorist and criminal threat areas.
At least, that was his last job in the U.S. Air Force. Today, McMahan belongs to a small cohort of apprentices in a program BASF, the global chemical giant, started last summer.
“I just kind of started applying to job openings in the area. I mean, I didn’t have any manufacturing experience at all,” says McMahan, 25.
BASF started the apprenticeship program last summer at its Seneca and Converse facilities, which recovers, refines and recycles precious and other metals from spent catalytic converters used in engines from automobiles to airplanes.
Complicated stuff, but that’s the point of the apprenticeship program, which BASF runs through Tri-County Technical and Spartanburg Community colleges. Roughly a dozen apprentices in the two chemical plants, with the White Stone facility welcoming more next year, split their week between BASF and classes in manufacturing for a total of 40 hours a week.
Dave Sanders, Seneca’s operations manager, says the program allows apprentices opportunities to earn and learn rather than “flooding them with a firehose in three or four days and then sending them out on the floor.”
“There’s a little bit of a gap between their incoming skill set and what we would like to have as a ready-to-start employee,” he says. “The apprenticeship program will help their overall skill set.”
Apprenticeships by site
Seneca site:
Program began June 14.
Partnering with Tri-County Technical College
Plant has seven apprentices, among 425 employees.
Pay: $18.50/hour, the same as full-time employees, with benefits.
Recruiting to begin in January.
Converse site:
Program began Aug. 16.
Partnering with Spartanburg Community College
Four apprentices, among roughly 80 employees.
Pay: $16.35/hour and increases each quarter to $18.50/ hour.
Recruiting for next cohort likely to begin next summer.
White Stone site:
Recruiting to begin Oct. 1.
To learn more about becoming an apprentice, click here.
