On-the-job robotics training propels California teen toward a career in engineering

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Both Nikhil Kaul’s parents are engineers, and as a 17-year-old apprentice in robotics, he hopes to follow in their footsteps — but going faster and farther. 

Kaul, a senior attending Amador Valley High in the Bay Area, has been working as a technician apprentice at Kensington Laboratories in Dublin. Kensington supplies robotics and automation equipment to the semiconductor industry. Among its signature products are wafer handling robots, which hold and move ultra-thin silicon wafers, which are cut into computer chips. 

Kaul said his parents, who emigrated from India, had their first hands-on engineering experiences after college. His mother, who marvels at this apprenticeship, told him the only non-academic courses her high school offered were home economics and shop classes. 

The yearlong apprenticeship is one of the first high-tech apprenticeships launched by Amador Valley High. Pleasanton Unified School District has placed several high school students at local technology companies and officials plan to grow the program next year. But there are many more students applying than opportunities available, said Kimberly Greenhouse, one of the district’s work-based learning teachers.

California is investing billions of dollars in apprenticeship and job training programs. Last month state officials announced $16 million was just awarded to apprenticeships targeting “opportunity youth,” who are often out of school or unemployed, and $52 million went to apprenticeships in technology and healthcare.

Kaul spoke about his apprentice experience with CalMatters. His comments were edited for length and clarity.

You’re among the first tech apprentices from your high school and the first in a robotics role. How do you like it?

I’ve always known that engineering is something I want to pursue. It really is like being on the job, actually having a day in the life of working at a robotics company.  If I want to pursue this field, this is what it’s going to look like. And it allowed me to double down, knowing that this is what I want to do.

What’s a typical day there like?

I’m not stuck doing only a certain role. I’m always rotating, doing different things. 

Kensington produces these machines called EFEMS. It stands for Equipment Front End Module. It’s a wafer handling robot. Because in these factories — like in an Intel factory — where they produce (computer) chips and stuff, it has to be completely clean, not even a speck of dust. Humans can’t even handle it, just because of the oils from our hands. So it has to be robots. So they are these machines that pick up wafers and then move them around before they get cut into byte chips.

Cleanliness is a big thing at my work. Every single time I’m dealing with any single part, I need to wipe it down two or three times, before and after dealing with it …  It is a production floor. They use me to help out and I learn different things as I’m going along.

What made you want to be an engineer?

Ever since I was born, I’ve been obsessed with cars and kind of how they’re able to perform, especially in motorsports. I always liked to work with my hands. I’m not a good type to just sit behind a computer and go for nine hours straight. 

I also knew I wanted to go into engineering, but I also wanted to keep an open mind. I figured I wanted any experience I could get in the field. I had completed a little engineering pathway at my school. I had taken three years of engineering classes.

How has your life changed since you became an apprentice last summer?

I like what I do, but it’s also a big time commitment. During the summer, it wasn’t super bad because I didn’t have school. I’m a senior now, so I’ve been doing college apps and all that stuff. So it’s been really hectic. If I wasn’t in this program, I would have a lot more free time, which I don’t know what I would have done with that.

I’m taking honors computer integrated manufacturing (class). The idea was that what I was learning in the class would coincide with what I’m learning on the job.

What are you most proud of accomplishing?

This is my first job, so I’ve never had to balance work, life, school, friends. So I think it definitely taught me time management. 

I’m learning things that people do on a day-to-day basis. It’s one thing to learn in a classroom and do projects. It’s (another) thing to take what I learned in my engineering classes or physics classes and apply that to real life scenarios.  

Sometimes my supervisor will be giving me something, showing me how to do it, and I have done something similar to this in my engineering class. Even my managers (said), “I’m really impressed with how you already know a lot of this stuff.”

In engineering (class) we end up building a lot of stuff with screwdrivers and metal pieces, actually building tangible things. I go to the production floor at my work and I feel at home already.

What were the challenges you’ve encountered?

I like to play golf. I have college apps. And I also had two online, asynchronous classes. So I was not really staying on top of everything when school started. I realized that and was like, “What am I doing with my time?” It was a couple of weeks into school and I’m super behind on my online classes. So I took a step back from golf and hanging out with friends. I was very focused on school and college apps, work. 

There’s an online class I need to take at my local community college and there’s evaluations and check-in forms and meetings and various things that I didn’t really anticipate. There are two or three people in the Pleasanton school district who’ve been having the check-ins with me. They’ve been helpful and have been supporting and guiding me.

How can this program be improved? How would you change it?

A lot of my friends and people I talk to don’t know a program like this even exists. I think this is a really great program, and this is the first year we’re doing it, but it flew under the radar. 

Financial support for this story was provided by the Smidt Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation.