MTC NCAM
Go to any keynote on the future of the additive manufacturing industry (AM) and it will likely conclude with a call for more education. Given the buzz around AM technologies, you would be forgiven for assuming the message has been received loud and clear but with the UK Government's recent Industrial Strategy failing to highlight the importance of AM and around 62% of manufacturers planning to undertake some form of move to 'Industry 4.0', the appeal for more education and relevant skills is extremely valid.
Within the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Coventry, the team at the UK's National Centre for Additive Manufacture (NCAM) is currently seeking to answer that call by embarking on the task of addressing the AM skills gap.
Led by Martin Dury, MTC's Learning Design Manager, this Innovate UK project aims to define essential occupations and subsequent competence needed for companies to successfully adopt AM technology into their business. To achieve this, Martin's team is inviting industry, OEMs and academia to attend skills mapping workshops at the MTC to help capture the right skills and knowledge required to fulfil these AM-specific roles. These workshops will help to form the basis of 'competency frameworks' which will define best practice for each occupation.
The frameworks will be used to design the most effective curricula for a range of short courses that will up-skill the existing workforce and inform national apprenticeship programmes to provide a pipeline of new talent in AM.
Officially opened in 2015, the NCAM houses several AM machines and auxiliary technologies and benefits from a wealth of expertise in numerous AM processes and materials. This range of technologies and applications means the centre provides an ideal technology agnostic foundation for relevant training which can feed into multiple areas of industry.
Since opening, the MTC has invested more than £36 million in training and facilities within its Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre. MTC Training has already had success in programmes for advanced metrology, intelligent automation and advanced machining, and has already developed a number of introductory courses designed to inform decision makers if AM is right for their business, and if so, provide impartial advice on which process is most appropriate. These courses benefit from being available in a number of different media, such as face-to-face, eLearning and virtual classrooms, enabling industry to benefit from the NCAM expertise irrespective of their location.
"Our intentions are for the curricula and apprenticeship programmes to be supported by technical training courses from our OEM members in addition to our own MTC Training department's offer," Martin explained. "Our aim is to help industry get past the hype curve of AM and actually enable them to successfully adopt this technology in their business."
Now NCAM is opening this up to the industry and calling for AM experts and early adopters to provide input and have their say in the skill mapping workshops. To get involved contact the team at NCAMskills@the-mtc.org. Contributions close 31 March 2018.
