Stratasys, one of the leading applied additive technology companies announced that it has rolled out Stratasys Additive Manufacturing Certification programme – a new industry certification programme in North America to close the skills gap that currently exists in the additive manufacturing (AM) industry.
The new certification programme has been built in association with top colleges and universities with an aim to enable students to gain AM credentials as well as increase their employability and workforce readiness in the industry.
Developed alongside a consortium of leaders in the education industry such as Iowa State University, UC Irvine Milwaukee School of Engineering and The Wentworth Institute of Technology, the new certification programme from Stratasys will provide companies operating in the manufacturing, design and medical industries with candidates with measurable qualifications and skills required for their business success.
The new certification programme from Stratasys consists of education modules that are designed to address evolving needs for skilled additive manufacturing workers.
As a part of the certification programme, educational institutions that have enrolled will receive access to 40 contact hours of exam preparation content organized via module and accessible directly via Stratasys.
In addition to access to content, the participating institutions will also receive other resources from Stratasys such as hands-on projects and labs, GrabCAD and InsightCAM software, module exams, instructor notes, and presentations.
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The students who enroll into the certification programme can tap into key technical resources guides, industry use cases, and software and preparation notes.
The efforts to introduce the programme come as a result of lack of certified additive manufacturing workforce. As per industry an estimate, the demand for certified additive manufacturing workers is only expected to increase in the future.
In fact, even today, a lot of companies operating in the AM sector are in need of workers with hands-on experience in the field. For example, Kevin Ayers, Additive Design and Manufacturing Specialist at Danfoss – a global producer of products and services used in cooling, air conditioning and heating notes, “Here at Danfoss, we are implementing additive manufacturing using a variety of technologies in a wide variety of applications. We are looking for candidates who have a passion for AM as well as general understanding of all the technologies in additive manufacturing today.”
“It’s very important to recruit talent that have actual hands-on experience in running a 3D printer and processing parts,” adds Ayers.
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However, several candidates are unable to prove job-relevant skills in the industry. This is where Stratasys’ new certification programme can help. For example, as Gina Scala, Director of Marketing, Global Education at Stratasys explains, “While demand for workers with additive manufacturing expertise continues to rise, there’s really no across-the-board standard to judge credentials. We’ve observed employers cannot always align job-specific readiness with additive manufacturing skills, therefore many workers fail to live up to expectations”.
“Backed by nearly 30 years in the industry and developed in conjunction with some of the most respected additive manufacturing educators– we believe our certification program is just what the industry needs to align the skills employers require and workers deliver,” concludes Scala.
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