National apprenticeship week highlights company-based education options

RALEIGH — Blum Inc. had a problem. In the 1990s, the international company’s North Carolina operation was running short of workers. Machinists. Technicians. Most of all, the company needed young employees who could expand the business and its bottom line. So Blum opened an apprenticeship program. “The idea was very simple,” Andreas Thurner, Blum’s apprenticeship...