No Contest: Training Humans to Master Machines

When Financial Times reporter Sarah O’Connor tweeted about a robot causing the death of a worker at an auto plant in Germany, she managed to tap into a dystopian nightmare. Of course, it didn’t help that her name was nearly identical to the protagonist of the Terminator film series, but a primal and pervasive fear lay at the heart of the Twitter storm that ensued: machine vs. human.

The facts paint a far less dramatic picture. For example, as computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) advances, workplace injuries in the automotive industry are actually on the decline.

This is just the start; new standards and credentials being created by the National Institute For Metalworking Skills (NIMS) and its partners promise to ensure that workers operating CAM technology have not just the tools they need to stay safe and productive, but also the cutting edge skills of the future. The demand for CAM programmers, designers and engineers is on the rise – likely to account for one million U.S. jobs by 2024.

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