Haas Achieves Another Milestone, Opens 150th HTEC in Greece
The first Haas Technical Education Center (HTEC) has opened its doors in Greece following a launch event on May 28th 2014 at CNC Training Center, an established learning facility located in Paiania, Athens. The event marked a huge milestone in that it not only introduced the first Greek HTEC showroom, but the 150th in the world.
The need for competitive skills is greater than ever. Like any other nation, Greece needs a workforce that is skilled and committed to working hard and working smart. The newly certified HTEC at CNC Training Center will help support this goal through the provision of practical CNC training excellence at the highest international level.
“Despite 57% youth unemployment, many Greek companies, including several of my Haas customers, face a lack of candidates with the right technical skills,” said Yannis Skopelitis, Managing Director at ERGOCNC, the exclusive Haas dealer in Greece. “Until today, many training programs, especially in our country, have difficulty staying abreast of new technologies and adapting their content to the modern practical needs of Greek manufacturing. This HTEC partnership at CNC Training Center is filling that gap.”
CNC Training Center is in fact an independent spin-off of long-standing Haas customer, CNC Solutions, which uses eight Haas machines to produce parts for products ranging from ballpoint pens, shavers and lighters, through to motorcycles and night vision equipment. CNC Training Center has the remit of delivering skilled CNC technicians, helping them to find work and assisting in their integration into the high technology manufacturing sector.
“Young Greek talent who want to get real CNC technology experience often have to migrate to places like central Europe or the Middle East,” said Panos Gounas, General Director at CNC Training Center. “However, there is a strong future in Greece. So with the help of Haas and its CNC machine tools, the expertise of ERGOCNC and of international business partners, we have set up a very practical CNC training curriculum. Our program consists not just of theoretical seminars, but offers real CNC experience to become real CNC craftsmen.”
The launch event also served as a great networking opportunity, attracting many people from the local manufacturing community and trade press journals, all keen to see how the HTEC plans to influence the future of Greek machining endeavor.
“Good traders and visionary entrepreneurs helped Greece prosper through the centuries, and entrepreneurs can help bring back those days,” says Bert Maes, Marketing Manager at Haas Automation Europe. “However, that starts with competitive skills. As a world leading CNC machine tool builder we see it as our responsibility to take what is available in the local education system and help to make it better, ultimately helping youngsters grow, and enterprises expand”.
