APPRENTICING REVIVED A NEW GENERATION AT GE LEARNS FROM EXPERIENCE.(Business)

Byline: Christopher Ringwald Business writer

In Schenectady, deep in one of the world's largest manufacturing buildings, Bryan Minch stooped over a manual lathe and filed a steel bushing into shape. Behind the 26-year-old Minch stood Fred Wilcox, twice his age, watching carefully - one generation mentoring the next in the General Electric Co.'s apprenticeship program. Founded in 1901, the three-year training of new workers was revived last year after being halted in 1987 in the midst of the company's cutbacks.

"With the apprentices on the floor, you feel it's going to go on - that GE isn't going to pull out of here," said Wilcox. "This new generation makes me think, maybe my sons will have a chance."

With a sweep of his head, the machinist took in the sprawling plant where layoffs and demolitions were the rule during the 1980s, rupturing nearly a century of blue-collar employment in this industrial company town.

The new blood represents a major turnaround for GE. When the program was terminated abruptly in 1987, the machine shop where apprentices spun lathes and lowered drill presses for decades was dismantled and the equipment surplused out to other divisions.

"It was like taking down …