Fitter and Turner

Job overview
Fitters and turners are tradesmen who manufacture parts on a lathe and a milling machine and fit machine parts.

What do people do in this job?
Fitters and turners work according to the specifications of engineering drawings and sketches or from examples of components.

They dismantle and fit together component parts. For example they will take a gearbox apart and inspect the gears for possible mistakes and damage.

The damaged parts will be repaired and the gearbox reassembled. 

What kinds of people are suitable for this career?
The most important qualities potential fitters and turners should possess are accuracy, patience, manual dexterity as well as sure judgment to work with the different machine tools.

Mechanical and mathematical aptitude is important since engineering drawings must be interpreted and precision measuring instruments are used.

What qualifications are needed?
School-leavers with good results in mathematics and science subjects are selected to undergo an apprenticeship, which will usually include part-time studies at a technical college.