Todd Clark, Campus President of Lincoln College of Technology in Indianapolis, cuts the ribbon to commemorate the opening of the school’s Hurco CNC Technology Center in Indianapolis on Manufacturing Day.
INDIANAPOLIS — Students, educators, industry leaders, and business leaders joined Hurco and the Lincoln College of Technology in Indianapolis to commemorate Manufacturing Day with the grand opening of the Hurco CNC Technology Center at the colleges Indianapolis campus.
Todd Clark, Indianapolis Campus President of Lincoln College of Technology, cut the ribbon to officially unveil the 5,000 square foot CNC machining facility equipped with 10 brand-new Hurco CNC machining and turning centres.
Our CNC technology is extremely beneficial to the classroom environment because the integrated control supports multiple ways to program part, said Greg Volovic, President of Hurco Companies, Inc.
Today, manufacturing is about technology—it’s wher skilled trades and technology meet, and Hurco CNC mills and lathes provide the technology piece that increases the value and relevance of the skills students learn.
Lincolns President and COO Scott Shaw said, We are excited to unveil the Hurco CNC Technology Center, and for our students to have the opportunity to train on Hurco machines. Our CNC Machining program will prepare students to join a growing and desirable industry as entry-level CNC operators or set-up technicians in todays modern manufacturing facilities.
In addition to Volovic and Shaw, several business and industry leaders emphasized the need for more manufacturing education programs and the importance of changing misconceptions about careers in manufacturing.
William Turner, Director of Education and Development at Allison Transmission, said manufacturing is a technology-driven career. He told the audience that many of the employees at Allison have worked there for 30+ years and he needs to ensure there are qualified employees to fill the positions they will vacate in the future.
Gabe Draper, owner of Draper Manufacturing, and the President of the Indiana chapter of the National Tooling and Manufacturing Association (NTMA), said an often discussed topic at NTMA meetings is the adverse impact of the skills gap. While most of his employees are trained machinists, he has hired some people with no experience and helped them work their way up by training them on the job.
Draper also credited their success to the more user-friendly machine tool on the market, such as his Hurco machines, equipped with conversational programming, which he called intuitive and easy to learn.
