A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
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It won’t come as a surprise to med-tech firms involved in precision engineering that there is a shortage of skilled CNC machining personnel. Students have been turning their backs on engineering studies for many years. And a career path in manufacturing seems downright primitive to a generation that has grown up with the Internet. The siren call of engineering is even falling on deaf ears in Germany, where schools are training approximately 15,000 fewer engineers than industry needs each year. Well, I’m happy to report that one company is determined to turn that tide. At the EMO metal fabrication show in Hannover, Germany, Haas Automation (Zaventem, Belgium; www.haascnc.com) announced the formal European launch of its Haas Technical Education Centre (HTEC) programme. The initiative, which has been highly successful in North America, is designed to foster a positive image of manufacturing among students and lure them into developing CNC machining skills.
Introduced in the United States in 1996, HTECs were conceived as school-based programmes where teachers and students could experience real-world machine technology. The centres have succeeded beyond the company’s wildest expectations. Today, more than 635 HTECs operate in high schools, vocational institutions, community colleges, and universities throughout North America. More than 1500 machines have been installed. Now the company wants to introduce the concept to Europe.
HTECs are described as an alliance between Haas Automation Europe, a local Haas Factory Outlet (HFO), and a local learning institution. All of the centres must meet a set of standards before they are certified by Haas. This oversight allows Haas to promote its vision of the shop floor. “Technical training schools tend to be poorly funded and often do not have a collaborative relationship with industry,” says Peter Hall, managing director of Haas Automation Europe. Students, understandably, perceive the manufacturing environment to be as dank and uninviting as the classroom. HTECs aim for a bright, airy space equipped with modern machines. “We want to show kids that manufacturing can be new and exciting and not just a job in some dirty old plant,” says Hall.
Haas also makes a point of providing the centres with state-of-the-art CNC machine tools. “These are not stripped ‘school’ machines,” stresses Hall. “They are the same models that we build for our regular customers.” Because budgets at educational institutions can be tight, Haas will go to great lengths to help them acquire the machines, he says. Discounts, leases, and creative financing arrangements can all be part of the package.
Haas’s corporate goal is to have 100 certified HTECs operating in Europe within the next five years. Hall thinks he can double that.
“Judging by the response we have had, I think we will have more than 200 centres in 35 countries by 2012,” says Hall. Haas already has initialed agreements to furnish CNC machine tools to Universität Wien, the Gewerbe Akademie in Konstanz, Germany, and more than 20 universities and schools in Russia, Poland, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Scandinavia, Portugal, and Estonia. “Plus, there are more than 150 Haas Mini Mills and other CNC machine tools installed in lycées across France,” he adds.
“Mankind’s future will depend on the ingenuity of scientists and engineers to develop needed technologies and products,” says Hall. And it will depend on the resources of the international manufacturing community to make these technologies and products a reality, he adds. “Manufacturing will need a huge number of well-qualified skilled people in the decades to come. Through its HTEC programme, Haas aims to make a long-term contribution to meeting this demand.”
Granted, Hall has a habit of waxing lyrical. But if the programme is successful in turning on a new generation to engineering and manufacturing careers, we can forgive a bit of bombast.
