Leon, having read through the post I get the impression that it's not really an apprenticeship you are doing but more on job training which will lead to you being able to operate the machine.
What are you actually getting out of this as far as a recognised qualification goes?? If you are doing a proper apprenticeship then you would probably have to be attending college once or twice a week where you would be learning all the theoretical stuff you need to know, very very few companies have the ability to do this sort of thing inhouse these days which is why you would need to go to college.