CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
16 February 2011
Company News
Iowa Western Community College Receives In-Kind Software Grant From Siemens PLM Software Valued at $65.2 Million
Siemens PLM Software and Iowa Western Community College (IWCC) announced the largest in-kind corporate contribution ever received by the college. The in-kind software grant from Siemens PLM Software, with a commercial value of $65.2 million, was presented today at a recognition ceremony held at the college in the presence of Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.
The in-kind software grant made through Siemens PLM Software’s GO PLM™ initiative, which includes training and specialized software certification programs, will enable IWCC to begin a design technology program to help meet the growing demand for a well trained, well qualified workforce. The design technology program will prepare graduates to enter the workforce in a high-demand career field or transfer to a four-year institution to complete a bachelor’s degree.
This unique, first-of-its-kind program brings together industry and academia to define program requirements that will help meet the needs of the marketplace. IWCC created an industry advisory board which, in addition to Siemens PLM Software, includes management team members from a variety of global manufacturers that call Iowa and Nebraska home, including Rockwell Collins, Inc. The input received from the industry advisory board was used by IWCC in conjunction with representatives of Iowa’s regent institutions to create a curriculum to provide advanced hands-on training that will help enable students to effectively enter the workforce following graduation. The new program will be offered at Cass County Center in Atlantic, Iowa, following renovations.
“The design technology program being developed by Iowa Western Community College is important to industry because of the emerging importance of PLM in managing the overall design process from concept, to manufacture, to product support, to product retirement,” said Dale Wulf, Manager, Mechanical Design Support, Rockwell Collins, Inc. “This is becoming a critical skill as products increase in complexity and design cycles continue to compress. With the implementation of this program by IWCC, employers will have another resource to draw qualified employees, who are familiar with PLM to fill a potential skill gap, which is projected to be increasing with the pending retirement of the baby boom generation.”
The new software, which will be incorporated into the curricula, will introduce students to product design and development technology used by many of the world’s leading manufacturing, architectural and construction companies. The coursework will help prepare students to develop technical drawings and plans to build everything from microchips to skyscrapers.
The range of software includes Siemens PLM Software’s Teamcenter® software,; NX™ software, a comprehensive digital product development solution; and Solid Edge® software, the core CAD component of the Velocity Series™ portfolio, a comprehensive family of solutions addressing PLM needs of the mid-market.
GO PLM Program
Siemens PLM Software’s Global Opportunities in Product Lifecycle Management (GO PLM™) initiative leads the industry in the commercial value of the in-kind grants it provides and brings together four complementary community involvement programs focused on academic partnership, regional productivity, youth and displaced worker development and the PACE (Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education) program. GO PLM provides PLM technology to more than one million students yearly at nearly 10,800 global institutions, where it is used at every academic level – from grade schools to graduate engineering research programs. For more information on GO PLM and the partners and programs it supports visit http://www.siemens.com/partners/goplm.
About Iowa Western Community College
Iowa Western Community College is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and offers two-year college transfer programs and more than 80 career programs to residents in a seven-county merged area. The college’s main campuses are located in Council Bluffs and Clarinda with other centers situated in Atlantic, Harlan, and Shenandoah. Degrees granted include the Associate of Arts, Associate of Applied Science, and Associate of Science. A diploma or certificate is granted upon the completion of selected programs. Full-time equivalent enrollment in 2010-2011 was 6,800. Adult and continuing education enrollments exceeded 40,000 during the same period.
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