The American Gear Manufacturers Association (AGMA) signed a partnership agreement with Richard J. Daley College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago yesterday, officially establishing the first AGMA National Training Center at Daley College in Chicago, IL. The AGMA National Training Center will be the center of engineering and operator level continuing education for all aspects of gear manufacturing. 

The 10,000 sqft. facility will train more than 600 students per year on all facets of gear manufacturing. From hosting the Basic Training for Gear Manufacturing to Gear Failure Analysis, students will be introduced to everything including machine set up basics to complex manufacturing procedures. In addition to the current gear industry and AGMA members, students enrolled in the Richard J. Daley College manufacturing or engineering programs will have the opportunity to participate in the program being offered by AGMA. 

“The National Training Center and the partnership with Daley College will allow us to achieve a significant education milestone for AGMA,” said AGMA President Matthew E. Croson. “The education of our workforce has been a primary mission of AGMA for decades, and we are recognized for our efforts on a global scale. The AGMA National Training Center at Daley College will enhance our reputation while delivering a world-class facility, with the equipment, tools and knowledge transfer that will be required to ensure the gear manufacturing industry has its fair share of skilled labor.”  

Several people from AGMA and the Richard J. Daley College worked diligently together to make the training center a reality. The AGMA Board of Directors, the AGMA Education Committee, spearheaded by Vice President of Education Services Casandra Blassingame, the leadership at Richard J. Daley College including President Dr. Eduardo Garza and the Dean of Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing David Girzadas, have spent months strategically planning how the facility would unfold.  

“AGMA has been in partnership with the Richard J. Daley campus for the past 26 years,” said Blassingame. “Given the resurgence of the need to educate and train talent for the manufacturing industry, advancing the partnership to establish the AGMA National Training Center in collaboration is a creative and innovative way for industry to connect with education. We are excited about our presence in the backyard of many of our members and we are equally excited about the growth of this partnership under the amazing leadership of Dr. Eduardo Garza and Dean David Girzadas.”  

By 2020, the AGMA National Training Center will host the majority of AGMA engineering and operator-level courses from April until November. The remainder of the year, AGMA will rotate courses in other parts of the country to offer a variety of locations to those not centered in the Chicago-area. Due to 38% of the gear industry supplier base being in the Chicago backyard, the training center will significantly reduce travel costs for companies in the local area. 

“We really cannot thank our partners at Daley College enough for the work that they put into this along with our own members who helped Casandra shape the training center,” Croson added. “We hope that this facility will serve not only as an educational resource but will be a platform to introduced skilled workers to the industry and will be a primary tactic AGMA deploys to attract new employees to this dynamic and rewarding career path.”