(WACO, Texas) – Texas State Technical College’s Precision Machining program is investing in its students with new equipment.
The program recently debuted two new Harrison M300 lathes and three Bridgeport mills, adding to the equipment already available to students. The equipment was purchased to ensure every student has a machine to work on during labs.
“It’s great to have new and updated equipment for our students to learn on,” said Harry Leining, an instructor in TSTC’s Precision Machining program. “It is representative of what they would find out in the industry.”
Colton Lopez, of Hillsboro, is in his fourth semester of the program working toward an associate degree. He said the new machines should make projects a little easier.
“You can get closer to the final dimensions,” he said.
Lopez said his experience learning about computer-aided design software and 3D-modeling while in high school in Nevada has helped him in the program. He said he likes having the freedom to problem-solve.
Jeremy Bailey, the Precision Machining program’s statewide director of alignment, said the new machines signal growth and enable students to learn quicker as the shift to the Performance-based education model occurs.
“We want to make sure we are filling our labs with students because the demand for machinists is high,” Bailey said. “There are a lot of manufacturing jobs in general, and we want to make sure we are helping our industry partners.”
According to Juju.com, there are more than 300 machinist and machine operator jobs open now in Texas.
TSTC’s Precision Machining program offers an associate degree and two certificates of completion at the Waco campus.
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.