How U.S. manufacturing is finding machinists
STUART, Fla., May 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — When Pace Machine & Tool owner Monica Dirr visited an America's Cutting Edge (ACE) CNC machining bootcamp during a 2023 visit to Indian River State College, she slipped one of the participants her business card.
''When you graduate, call me,'' she told him. 'And he did. I hired him right away.'
The success he's had at the small aerospace machine shop in Stuart changed how Dirr has found and trained CNC machinists.
ACE provides free online and in-person training to participants interested in starting or upskilling their machining careers. In-person bootcamps typically run for five days, with time spent on CAD/CAM software and CNC machines.
Dirr says the national program 'gives people the basic skills' that she can build on to put them on the shop floor. Additionally, it's transformed her talent search process.
'It saves you money,' she said. 'I went through the routine of advertising and interviewing people. It wastes time. When I go to the school and hire someone out of the program, they're ready to go.'
Dirr has described the program as a 'filter' to finding serious employees. And she isn't alone in the approach of using ACE to find or upskill talent.
Missouri-based Seyer Industries has described the ACE bootcamp as great not only for exposure, but as a prerequisite for apprentices.
'I see ACE as a recruiting tool,' Chance Henke, workforce development manager at Seyer, said. 'We have an apprenticeship that this could serve as a pipeline to.'
Mayday Manufacturing in Texas has been sending cohorts of its own personnel through the training as they've turned to in-house employees to fill their machining needs.
'What ACE has done for us is give a leg-up to their training and accelerate their exposure,' said Craig Barhorst, director of operations. 'We see it as beneficial for our new machinists or those who show promise to become machinists.'
If you're a company looking for talent, consider visiting an ACE partner. A full list of partners can be found here.
Contact us if you'd like us to facilitate a connection between you and your nearest ACE partner.
About ACE
America's Cutting Edge, supported by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program, is a national training program designed to reestablish American leadership in the machine tool industry through transformative thinking, technological innovation, and workforce development. The curriculum – developed by University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Professor Dr. Tony Schmitz and Dr. Uday Vaidya, IACMI CTO and the UT-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor's Chair for Advanced Composites Manufacturing – combines advanced training and techniques from the University of Tennessee, the scientific expertise of the Department of Energy's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the proven workforce development capabilities of IACMI.
www.americascuttingedge.org
About IACMI
The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, or IACMI–The Composites Institute®, is dedicated to securing U.S. global leadership in advanced manufacturing by connecting people, ideas, and technology. IACMI is a 165-plus member community of industry, academic institutions, and government organizations working to enhance U.S. manufacturing competitiveness, with a strong focus on technology, commercialization and workforce development. Established in 2015 by the Department of Energy, IACMI is one of 18 Manufacturing USA Institutes collaborating to accelerate new technology, create new products, reduce costs and risks, and equip the workforce with future-ready skills. IACMI also partners with the Department of Defense to scale up industry-driven job skills and revitalize American manufacturing. Based in Knoxville, Tennessee, IACMI is managed by the Collaborative Composite Solutions Corporation, a not-for-profit organization established by The University of Tennessee Research Foundation.
www.iacmi.org
Media Contact: Michael Alachnowicz | IACMI Communications Specialist
[email protected]
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