The Front Range Community College Foundation has received a $20,000 donation for scholarships for precision machining students from the Gene Haas Foundation of Virginia.
FRCC’s Precision Machining Program is housed in the Advanced Technology Center at the Boulder County Campus in Longmont. The program has more than a hundred students in its daytime for-credit program and its evening non-credit program.
“There is a great need for skilled machinists in northern Colorado and nationally,” said Ryan McCoy, executive director of the foundation. “We’re grateful to the Gene Haas Foundation for its support.”
One goal of the Gene Haas Foundation is to introduce students to careers in machine technology and manufacturing. A recent report from Deloitte professional services firm and the Manufacturing Institute forecasts that almost 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will need to be filled in the United States in the next decade, but a “skills gap” is expected to result in 2 million of those jobs going unfilled.
Gene Haas is the owner of Haas Automation Inc., the nation’s leading builder of CNC (computer-numeric-controlled) machine tools.
FRCC’s state-of-the-art machining center has numerous Haas CNC machines.
About Front Range Community College
FRCC offers nearly 100 degree and certificate programs from locations in Boulder County, Larimer County, Westminster, and Brighton, and online.
FRCC is a member of the Colorado Community College System, the state’s largest system of higher education. CCCS serves more than 162,000 students annually. The system oversees career and academic programs in the 13 state community colleges and career and technical programs in more than 160 school districts and six other post-secondary institutions.
