Detroit-based LIFT, or Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow, today announced it is opening up its state-of-the-art Learning Lab to students in K-12, community and technical colleges, and universities as well as current workers. The lab is located in the LIFT Manufacturing Innovation Institute (1400 Rosa Parks Blvd.).
As part of the effort, today LIFT hosted students and faculty from Detroit’s University Prep Science and Math High School (UPrep) for a preview of its brand-new immersive Learning Lab. UPrep will be utilizing the Fundamental Skills Development and Project Fabrication labs during the 2019-2020 school year.
The lab spans 6,500 square feet of space and features eight labs equipped to prepare incoming students for in-demand manufacturing careers, including CNC operations and welding technician training centers as well as labs for students to learn smart factory basics and explore materials science, metrology, and maker spaces for hands-on fabrication.
The lab also features real-world models of industry-standard equipment where students will learn, train, and be upskilled on the same equipment they would encounter in an advanced manufacturing workplace, reducing employers’ need to provide additional on-the-job training.
Students also will see the ongoing ASM International Education Foundation Materials Science Teacher Bootcamp in the Materials Science Lab, which currently is training a number of Michigan’s teachers
Supported by LIFT, University Prep Schools will roll out the institutes’ “IGNITE: Mastering Manufacturing” curriculum to UPrep students in the Learning Lab, starting this fall. Developed by a national partnership led by LIFT, and supported by funding from the Department of Defense, “IGNITE” is a three-year foundational, competency-based, blended learning program, designed to produce the “multi-skilled technician” needed in today’s workplace.
The Learning Lab is poised to fill a tremendous industry need for training in advanced manufacturing,” said Emily DeRocco, vice president of education and workforce development of LIFT. “The real differentiator of this unique educational venue is that students who will be our next generation manufacturing workforce and incumbent workers in need of new smart factory skills will experience both theory and hands-on learning to industry standards in a world-class, working research and development center, located at the epicenter of automotive, engineering, and manufacturing.”
For more information, contact Joe Steele, LIFT communications director at jsteele@almmii.org.
