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moldmakingtechnology.com 31 says. In addition, Pierce leads a team of 11 experts who travel to academic institutions across North America to help profes- sors, school administrators and students become proficient in design skills and techniques. The company also hires about 30 students each year to help train instructors. The position is similar to being a teacher's assistant in college. There's an emphasis on project-based learning, because collaboration and creativity are very much a part of how injection molded parts are designed, and these overarching skills are needed in today's working environment. "We also act as a liaison between the education system and our commercial customers, who often ask us where to find new talent," Pierce says. Teaching Programming with Verification CGTech (Irvine, California) is a supplier of Vericut, an NC verification, optimization and simulation software. CGTech has partnered with institutions of higher learning to promote manufacturing as a career for most of its near 30 years in busi- ness, according to Jim Huddy, national sales manager. "We have several hundred education customers in North America and nearly 1,000 worldwide," he says. By "education customers," Huddy is referring to vocational high schools, trade schools and universities that participate in CGTech's Educational Program, which provides schools with 30 seats of Vericut software and training for an annual fee of $1,000. The comprehensive package provides all the modules (CAD/CAM, tooling and model interfaces) and licenses that schools need to run a results-oriented training program. "Each school's program varies by campus and by industry," Huddy says. "However, they can verify and optimize NC code for vir- tually any machining process, including moldmaking." Tim McDonald is the tech support manager for North CGTech Technical Support Engineers look on as students work on converting their CAD files to NC code, which were then checked using Vericut, CNC machine simulation, verification and analysis software during the 2016 SkillsUSA/NIMS event. America. He manages the company's team of 21 technicians, who are based throughout the United States and Canada. They arrange a custom Vericut Machine Configuration (VMC) to use with a school's particular machines and then provide training on the use of Vericut for educators who, in turn, will train their students. "With skilled labor at a pre- mium, not everyone is catching programming errors by hand. We want them to know how important it is to verify their programming before they hit the shop floor," McDonald says. In addition, CGTech technical support engineers participate as judges for the CNC milling and CNC lathe machining events at the National Leadership and Skills Conference (NLSC) SkillsUSA national competition. "The weeklong event draws more than 16,000 participants and is designed to help prepare students for joining the workforce," Huddy says. Using Vericut, judges evaluate the accuracy of the NC programs created by student teams while ensuring their programs run without violating safety standards or damaging machines. Judges evaluate each category to measure the students' level of understanding of CNC programming, including writing CNC programs, inter- preting prints and measuring parts. Training Metallurgical, Engineering and Technical Experts Edro (Walnut, California) is a supplier of custom mold bases, specialty steels and aluminum. Its leadership recognizes that in today's moldmaking industry, many unique and innovative Dr. Chris Rottmair (left), who leads EDRO's technical and production team in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, teaches apprentices John O'Brien, Michael Muthoka, Chris Farnin and Rob Curran the difference between direct-fire and convectional furnaces, and how one determines cycle times based on gauge and material grade. Image courtesy of CGTech. Image courtesy of Edro. We have to look at the big picture. With skilled labor at a premium, not everyone is catching programming errors by hand.