I was in the Technical Education Center here, and it was a worthless educational experience. I was…read morein the machining program, and I'll be honest... The instructor at the time, Mark Moleman, was awful. CNC (computer numerously controlled) machining systems are the way of the future in 75% of shops. Mark knew basically NOTHING in this field. I was 1 of 4 students who was there on their own money. Everyone else was there because the welfare office said that they had to either show proof they were looking for work, or proof they were in some form of education. The education the state was paying for. It took me and the other 3 competent students 2 or 3 months to learn everything about manual machining that we needed to know. Mark took the catastrophically slow pace of the other students as an excuse for why we weren't moving on to the CNC stuff. He said for months that one of the other reasons was because the spindle in 1 of the CNC machines needed replacing and that he was waiting for a repair company to come and replace it. The assistant instructor informed me that he had been using this excuse for several years!
On top of all this, he didn't even really teach! He turned the students loose on the manual machines, and then went and spent 75% of the day making parts for his motorcycles. He didn't even have the students gather around and learn from watching him!
Reece Gibson, a Midwest Master Cam expert and trainer, came through once in a while and used the shop as a training center. He was teaching guys who's shops had paid for them to be there. But since they were using the KCKCC facility, he let anyone who wanted to from our class join the training. I would say over the 11 months of the program, he was probably in the shop 10 hours. I learned way more in that 10 hours about CNC maching than I learned in the entire 11 months that I was there.
I don't know what the new instructor they got is like, but just by the simple fact that they had Mark teaching there at all, makes a statement about the people in charge. If you are a competent human being who wants to learn machining, stop by there and shadow the class and teacher before you enrollee and spend your money. If the instructor doesn't know CNC, DO NOT DO THE PROGRAM! Manual machining is a thing of the past, and there is no money in being able to do it! The shop I went to work for sometimes had parts come off a CNC lathe that had a burr that needed to be removed. This involved chucking it up on a manual lathe and spending 30 seconds machining the burr off. Doing this did not require 11 months of education. The money is in being able to take a part I was in the Technical Education Center here, and it was a worthless educational experience. I was in the machining program, and I'll be honest... The instructor at the time, Mark Moleman, was awful. CNC (computer numerously controlled) machining systems are the way of the future in 75% of shops. Mark knew basically NOTHING in this field. I was 1 of 4 students who was there on their own money. Everyone else was there because the welfare office said that they had to either show proof they were looking for work, or proof they were in some form of education. The education the state was paying for. It took me and the other 3 competent students 2 or 3 months to learn everything about manual machining that we needed to know. Mark took the catastrophically slow pace of the other students as an excuse for why we weren't moving on to the CNC stuff. He said for months that one of the other reasons was because the spindle in 1 of the CNC machines needed replacing and that he was waiting for a repair company to come and replace it. The assistant instructor informed me that he had been using this excuse for several years!
On top of all this, he didn't even really teach! He turned the students loose on the manual machines, and then went and spent 75% of the day making parts for his motorcycles. He didn't even have the students gather around and learn from watching him!
Reece Gibson, a Midwest Master Cam expert and trainer, came through once in a while and used the shop as a training center. He was teaching guys who's shops had paid for them to be there. But since they were using the KCKCC facility, he let anyone who wanted to from our class join the training. I would say over the 11 months of the program, he was probably in the shop 10 hours. I learned way more in that 10 hours about CNC maching than I learned in the entire 11 months that I was there.
I don't know what the new instructor they got is like, but just by the simple fact that they had Mark teaching there at all, makes a statement about the people in charge. If you are a competent human being who wants to learn machining, stop by there and shadow the class and teacher before you enrollee and spend your money. If the instructor doesn't know CNC, DO NOT DO THE PROGRAM! Manual machining is a thing of the past