NEWS

What a Difference a Year Makes

Announced at EMO 2007 just 12 months ago, the European HTEC program is on target to achieve its first-year goals with a total of 9 official Haas CNC teaching facilities open at the time of writing and another 9 planned to open before the end of 2008, including Russia, Belarus, Sweden and Portugal. In 2009 the company will oversee at least another 30-35 HTEC’s in Europe – in several countries including Ukraine, Spain, Lithuania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and France - each of which will be founded and managed by local Haas distributors (known as Haas Factory Outlets – HFO’s).

“The HTEC program is like a snowball gathering momentum,” says Haas Europe Managing Mr. Peter Hall. “When an HTEC opens in a particular country it captures the imagination of similar schools and colleges, inspiring those institutions to follow the same path.”

The European HTEC program was launched to counter what Haas regards as one of the greatest threats to sustainable economic development on the continent: the shortage of talented and motivated young people entering precision engineering industry with CNC machining skills; skills that Mr. Hall personally considers to be the cornerstone of advanced manufacturing industry.

“I believe that one of the major reasons for the shortage is that we fail to attract young people to study and make a career in CNC technology,” he says. “We’ve found that many schools use antiquated machine shops equipment and that as a result the students do not learn the skills needed by their local industry. We feel that without modern CNC machines and modern CNC technology, and without up-to-date continuous training, teachers find it difficult to motivate young people to choose a career in what is actually a very exciting, very advanced sector.”

As well as providing CNC machine tools and CNC simulators, Haas also helps schools to renovate and modernise classrooms and workshops. The company has found that when they’re taught in clean, high-tech and well-equipped educational facilities, young people – as well as their parents and local employers – soon change their view of manufacturing.

“Investing in a facility shows students that today’s manufacturing is a high-tech business full of exciting and well-paid opportunities. We also provide an HTEC facility set-up and a student motivation package, which includes apparel, visual displays, and reading and learning materials – all of which go towards to creating a great-looking and inspiring place to study.”

Together with its program partners - KELLER, MasterCam, Esprit, Renishaw, Sandvik Coromant, Schunk, Blaser, Urma and Chick - Haas plans to open 200 HTEC’s across Europe within 5 years.