Planning for the Future – Education Drives Innovation (cont.)
Continued from January 2006 Main Page
Academic Partnership Program
UGS provides a variety of grants to academic institutions including middle schools, high schools, vocational/technical schools and 2- and 4-year colleges and universities. The goal is to improve the technical stature of these institutions and their ability to develop talented graduates, experienced with the real world industry practices that our customers need to sustain competitive advantage.
Schools around the world are developing curricula and research programs around the UGS® technology they receive through this program. For instance YanCheng Institute of Technology recently opened the first UGS College, to address a growing demand for experienced technologists in the Chinese automotive market. Students are just finishing their first semester at the college and expect to have numerous employment opportunities once they complete the program and pass the certification examination established by the school.
Regional Productivity
Working with local community development teams we help our partners in these communities develop programs that can improve economic conditions by training displaced workers, attracting new businesses or helping small businesses expand their capabilities.
An example is an initiative we’ve undertaken in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development, Boeing Aerospace, Prairie View A&M University and Tuskegee University. Through this partnership we are providing PLM software, curriculum development tools and linkages with historically black universities for technical assistance and staff training to Makerere University in Uganda. Markerere hopes to help develop manufacturing capabilities in the region, providing a foundation for economic growth and corresponding career opportunities in East Africa.
Youth Development
This segment of the program helps both young people and adults learn basic skills that will enable them to find employment in the manufacturing industry. It includes support for global programs such as F1 in Schools and FIRST Robotics as well as local initiatives like the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program that are designed to attract young people to engineering careers.
Community Relations
Though we do business globally, we're committed to involvement locally. At UGS locations around the world, we support regional initiatives that help individuals lead productive and fulfilling lives and serve as catalysts for positive change in the communities where our employees work and live.
PACE
UGS, General Motors, EDS and Sun Microsystems have partnered to create a global program called PACE (Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education) to help prepare the next generation of engineers in the automotive industry to work with state-of-the-art product development and lifecycle management technology.
The PACE 2006 Vehicle Collaboration Project is a first-of-its-kind partnership between corporate and academic sectors using commercial PLM software to conceptualize and develop a ground-breaking vehicle that provides students with real-world experience in New Product Development and Introduction (NPDI). This is the first global design engineering course with a real-time web collaboration tool used on a common vehicle platform for credit bearing curriculum in several countries.
More information on PACE and its member institutions is available on the PACE Web site.
In a recent survey conducted in the Americas by the National Association of Manufacturers’ Manufacturing Institute/Center for Workforce Success and Deloitte Consulting LLP, nearly three out of every four respondents indicated having a high performance work force is key to their future business success. The other most commonly selected driver was new product innovation, which the survey report states “is inextricably linked to employee quality and performance.” It is also interesting to note that “low-cost producer status” ranked only third on this year’s list of most important drivers of future business success, while in past studies, manufacturers had consistently ranked this as their number one response.
It is clear that developing a workforce experienced in both innovative thinking and efficient production practices is critical and that training in PLM technologies and processes can deliver the results that concern manufacturers most today. UGS is proud of its industry leadership in this area…. Today we serve more than 8,200 GO PLM partners worldwide that, collectively, train 850,000 students on UGS PLM software each year.
I encourage you to explore the ways GO PLM might benefit your business or community. For more information on the program and the partners and activities it supports, visit GO PLM.
