ARM conducted rigorous audit
Brian Wilson chairs the Education and Workforce Advisory Committee at ARM and audited the UR Robotics Training Program: “It’s a very rigorous audit that made it apparent that UR listened and adapted to industry needs,” he says. “There is a big push for cobots that are affordable, that can easily be redeployed in different applications, and that are for both the large enterprise but also for the entrepreneur. Our endorsement is not just an academic accreditation; we look at whether the program helps the industry educate the workforce they need right now.”
In the evaluation of the UR program, ARM stressed the ‘training of the trainer’ aspect that ensures the quality of the teaching. “It’s also a course that can be offered from high school to industry professionals,” says Wilson. “There are many on and off-ramps in the lifelong learning journey and UR figured out how to make people embark on that journey at different career stages.”
Ripple effect through supply chains
At the Columbus State Community College in Ohio, the director of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), Jeff Spain, explains how the college is now building a mixed lab space for cobots, that will focus on both professional development for manufacturing employees while also educating the next workforce generation to hit the ground running with cobots. “With their reduced footprint and intuitive programming, cobots have been a major disruption to industrial automation and are within that Industry 4.0 sweet spot of technology solutions that we find that our local employers need funded education programs for,” he says. “When large companies endorse UR cobots, it has a ripple effect through the supply-chains as Tier 1-3 suppliers and other industries realize that here is a vetted, nimble technology, that we have found offers low risk.”
For educators, manufacturers and students seeking to learn more about UR’s educational program, the company is offering the free webinar “Developing Tomorrow’s Engineers Today: An Educational Program Focused on Automation Competencies” on November 2, co-hosted with The Robot Report, and on November 10 with the Association for Advancing Automation (A3).