This full-time program is a great way to start your career as a machinist, a rewarding and challenging trade with precision and craftsmanship as core attributes.

As a Machinist Technician, you’ll set up and operate precision equipment for the production of a variety of components and assemblies. Machinists make or modify primarily metal components to very fine tolerances.

At 30 weeks in length (900 hours), this program contains content nearly double that afforded by the Machinist apprenticeship stream for equivalent periods. You will learn skills including, but not limited to:

machining
machine set-up
blueprint reading
process planning
design validation
precision measurement
heat treatment.
Metal cutting and shaping operations use a variety of machine tools, including conventional mills, drills, lathes, and grinders. As modern machine tools are often computer-driven, a Machinist Technician may be responsible for programming and operating high-tech Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) equipment such as CNC mills, lathes, Electrical Discharge Machines (EDM), and Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM).

Upon successful completion of your first 15 weeks, you will be eligible to write the first-period Machinist apprenticeship exam. At the end of 30 weeks, you will be eligible to write the second-period Machinist apprenticeship exam.

Credentials
After successfully completing this program, graduates will receive a SAIT certificate as a Machinist Technician.

Graduates are eligible to write the first and second-year Provincial Apprenticeship Board exams for the machinist trade provided they attain a minimum of 65% in all their courses. Apprenticeship exam fees will be required.

Graduates can pursue job opportunities in:

transportation
oil and gas manufacturing
medical technology
wherever equipment is manufactured or repaired
Graduates will have achieved the training equivalent of the first two periods of a Machinist apprenticeship.

Related careers include:

industrial mechanic
field heat treatment technician