Mechanical engineering Professor John Wentz spoke to the St. Paul Pioneer Press about how the University of St. Thomas hosted ‘upskilling’ training for machinists this past summer. The training was meant to meet industry demand for manufacturing labor.
From the story:
The manufacturing industry involves highly skilled workers and it’s rapidly advancing with technology. But each year, thousands are departing the industry for retirement or other reasons. That’s left a demand for new, and more highly trained, workers. ...
Partnering with the Air Force Research Laboratory and Third Wave Systems, the university hosts a 12-member group over two sessions to learn about CNC machining, or Computer Numerical Control, which Wentz said is like robotic machining. ...
“We’re seeing college students who are interested in machining and they want to … already have been trained into some of the best software. We even have high school students who have gone through our other ACE training and they’re very interested in this, so they want to get as much as they can,” Wentz said.
