MTC AM apprenticeship
The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), a leading researcher in the 3D printing field, is to launch the UK’s first additive manufacturing (AM) apprenticeships.
Founded in 2010, the MTC’s main objective has always been to bridge the gap between academia and industry. The apprenticeship programmes will be launched in September this year, and are being offered in a bid to address the shortage of skills in the advanced manufacturing market. In establishing these programmes, MTC wants to provide fully-skilled technicians to one of the fastest growing advanced manufacturing technologies in industry.
Skills relating to additive manufacturing are in demand in a variety of manufacturing sectors, including automotive and aerospace. And the MTC, which houses the National Centre for Additive Manufacturing (NCAM), feels well-placed to use it comprehensive range of AM equipment to see young engineers through from academia to industry.
“While there are a number of additive training courses currently available in the UK, these tend to be focussed on equipment use. The MTC is aiming to provide additive manufacturing apprenticeships that will cover the whole range of competences necessary for specific occupations. They will also offer accredited curricula of short courses to enable the up-skiing of existing staff,” commented MTC’s learning design manager, Martin Dury.
MTC NCAM
Inside the MTC's NCAM.
“We are currently writing competency frameworks that will define the knowledge, skills, and behaviour required to operate in the various job roles in an end-to-end additive manufacturing production environment. These frameworks will then form the foundation for the apprenticeship programmes and short course curricula. We have spent the last three months consulting with industry, manufacturers, OEMs, and academia to ensure the frameworks exactly match the needs of industry.”
Those needs have been deduced by MTC after a recent flood of calls for education throughout AM. It is thought, almost industry-wide, that education, or lack thereof, is one of the major bottlenecks of AM’s growth and adoption as a volume manufacturing tool. The MTC, as the UK’s national centre for research in the sector, is thus aiming to do its bit. It boasts AM machines from the likes of EOS, Renishaw, Stratasys and HP, and also has a wealth of expertise, all of which it wants to share to further the industry.
“The Manufacturing Technology Centre is an acknowledged world leader in additive technology and the home of the National Centre for Additive Manufacturing,” Dury added. “We have all the equipment and capabilities to deliver first-class, sector-wide and technology agnostic programmes for apprenticeships or existing employees. The manufacturing industry is crying out for this and we will be able to make it available in a format which allows people to learn while earning, funded by the apprenticeships levy.”
Anyone with additive manufacturing expertise who would like to contribute to the design of these competency frameworks is invited to contact the MTC at ncamskills@the-mtc.org.
