NEWS

New Haas Technical Education Centre Opens in Belarus

In October, an impressive new HTEC facility was opened at the Minsk Technical Vocational College of Mechanical Engineering, a branch of the Republican Institute for Vocational Education (RIPO), Belarus. Attended by more than 300 guests from Belarus, Russia, Germany and the US - including representatives from more than 50 technical educational institutions and 68 manufacturing companies – the grand opening was a seminal moment for all concerned and marked the beginning of what the Belarus Minister for Education, Mr. Alexander Radkov hoped would be a new era of cooperation between manufacturing and education in the country.

“This HTEC is unique in Belarus”, said Mr Radkov, “…. we have made a positive step towards achieving high quality vocational training.”

The Rector of RIPO, Mr. Arkadi Shkliar added:  “Vocational education has to keep pace with production demands.  But this challenge can not be met without introducing true innovative production machines into the training process”.

The new Minsk HTEC has 4 Haas machines, including a Haas Mini Mill, an SL-40 CNC turning centre, a VF-1 machining centre and a TL-1 Toolroom lathe and is also employing Keller CNCPlus-TRAINING software.

The facility is close to more than 200 local engineering firms – including the Minsk Tractor Company - and will help to ensure students are fully familiar with the latest CNC technology when they leave full time education and begin their careers.

“Since the launch at EMO, we’ve seen a tremendous response to our HTEC program across Europe,” says Haas Automation Europe Managing Director, Mr Peter Hall. “The Minsk facility is one of several important and high-profile HTEC’s we opened at the end of 2007. For 2008 we plan to have 40 HTEC’s open and operational, across Spain, Italy, Germany and Easter Europe.

Siegfried Keller, owner and managing director of KELLER GmbH was also present at the grand opening.

“I’m deeply impressed by this event,” he said, “and very much enjoyed meeting with Belarusian manufacturers.  The most successful industry-leading companies in 65 countries around the world use our CNC learning and production software. The opening of the HTEC center in Belarus shows the country’s commitment to adopting leading technologies and bodes well for its economical growth”.

The worldwide shortage of skilled CNC machining operators, programmers and application engineers is a challenge faced daily by almost all precision engineering companies, from Calcutta to California, Copenhagen to Cape Town.

In a huge and unprecedented effort to alleviate the problem Haas Automation. Inc., California, USA, introduced the Haas Technical Education Centre (HTEC) program for Europe.

Already a resounding success in the USA and Canada, the Haas Automation Europe HTEC program aims to create long-term alliances with European vocational training, technical colleges, universities and other manufacturing technology learning institutions. The goals: to make the latest manufacturing technology accessible to a very wide range of educational establishments, and provide students with hands-on experience in a real-world manufacturing environment.

The HTEC concept was first established by Haas Automation. Inc., in the USA in 1996, and was originally a school-based program – a place where teachers and students could experience the latest machine tool technology.

Today, the program has evolved beyond the company’s wildest expectations. In the USA and Canada there are already more than 635 HTECs, including almost 100 high schools, 100+ vocational schools, almost 300 community colleges and close to 200 universities, with well over 1500 machines installed.

Keller CNCPlus-TRAINING is a groundbreaking program designed to teach novice operators, as well experienced operators who don’t have the specific expertise, how to program a Haas machine using the proprietary Haas CNC.