CompuServe Messages

Nick, I just caught your response to the issue concerning the ACE. You bring up some good points concerning the quality of the instruction. One point you have made ws " Don't get me wrong, I am not referring to ATC's or those schools who really care (though those a in the minority), but rather all of those quick buck artists who run night school classes, are part time or for that matter full time college/high school CAD teachers." I really am concerned that AutoCAD is becoming such a wide spread and readily available application, that training is going to suffer and you are going to get poorly trained individuals falling through the cracks. You have high schools providing some AutoCAD training, especially in vocational/technical trades (i.e., Drafting). Many of these instructors are doin a good job with their limited resources. Others may be doing an injustice to themselves, the student and eventually to employers. Autodesk is putting forth an effort to provide training to these teachers through the Teach Training programs they sponsor. One thing I think industry should do is spend some time with local teachers who are implementing CAD into their programs and provide them some much needed guidance and technical assistance. I personally have "adopted" several local high schools that use AutoCAD and spend a little time with each instructor. Beleive me, this really helps both the instructor and the student. Hey, I can't solve all the problems, but I can provide some light where I can. If others would do this, it would really help and improve education. As far as the "quick buck artists", that's what Autodesk is hoping (or at least I see it that way-AM I RIGHT WAYNE?) is trying to do weed out such "fly by night" operations through the AutoCAD Training Centers. There the quality of curriculum, state-of-the-art facilities, and qualified instructors are carefully monitored. What we have to be concerned here is the number of sources of AutoCAD training that is outside the umberella of the efforts of Autodesk to insure the quality of training. <<I know educational funding cutbacks have impacted upon the teaching profession greatly. Teachers are expected to do more with less and have no time to keep abrest of industry standards. Well, excuses are cheap. If you want to teach a subject you must know that subject. Too many times I've encountered CAD teachers who have never installed or configured autocad and are at a total loss when something goes wrong.>> I would also encourage industry to set up summer intern programs for these teachers. Doesn't cost a lot of money, but it does take a bit of time. I know of several vocational instructors who work six to eight weeks each summer to work with Architects or Engineers in boning up on their skills, especially those involving CAD. Industry also needs to encourage the networking of their employees with these individuals to help with configuration and installation problems. The instructors should be able to pick up a phone and talk to someone who KNOWS AutoCAD. I have been involved with CAD for 20 years now. Way back in the early days of my career, my employer put togeather a faculty exchange program. This was designed to bring teachers/instructors into our organization to help them keep their skills up-to-date in high technology areas like CAD. I spent over six months traveling through 7 south-east states working with small to medium sized colleges in training staff and instructors in CAD. This was BEFORE AutoCAD ever existed. The program was an outstanding success and I still stay in contact with some of the staff I trained after all these years. My suggestion is that if industry is concerned with the quality of the employees that they are getting, then they need to become more involved at the grass roots level of eduction. I every industry who uses CAD would take some time with local educational institutions, then we might not have to worry so much about poor quality of instruction wouldn't we? So, I suggest that we all get involved, I am, and I will continue to be.