Stephen Covey’s landmark book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ lists the 7^th critical habit as “Sharpen the saw.” It references a parable of a lumberjack and a stranger. The woodsman is very busy cutting down trees. As he completes more and more work his effort increases and his productivity goes down because his saw dulls over time. The lumberjack, exhausted and cursing the labor, is approached by the stranger. “What’s the problem?” asks the stranger. “My saw is dull and won’t cut well” responds the lumberjack. “Why don’t you sharpen it?” asks the stranger. The lumberjack responds “What kind of question is that? Because I would have to stop sawing, and I’m very busy.”  The stranger responds “But, if you sharpened your saw you could cut more efficiently than before. You could get even more work done.”
It’s important to sharpen our saw. We need to keep working to improve our knowledge base, approach, and overall situation. This may involve attending a training class, reading a book, mentoring and being mentored, or joining a peer group. I understand this can be difficult in the world of product development / engineering / design / manufacturing / and service. There is always pressure to get to market, get to the trade show, meet customer demands, etc.

Efficient engineering, design, manufacturing, and service requires efficient use of the supporting technologies for each role. Our training group consistently proves a return on our customer’s investment in training and development. That’s because technology keeps getting better. If you don’t know how to take advantage of the full functionality of your tools like PTC Creo, PTC Windchill, PTC Arbortext, and PTC Mathcad…you’re cutting with a dull saw.

We consistently schedule key PTC certified training classes and training courses that help people throughout organizations make the most of their technology. We deliver everything from Windchill Administrator courses to training classes for specific PTC Creo tools and functionality.

Do me a favor. Take time to sharpen your saw. A few days in a training course could save you hundreds of hours down the line. Take a look at the EAC Training Calendar. Maybe you’ll find the perfect PTC training course to put a new edge on your saw. Contact our training group to learn more about our training and mentoring delivery options (Like EACLive!) and full course catalogue. And check out this blog to learn more about how to select a PTC Training Course and Training Class provider.

We are an Authorized Training Partner of PTC. Our training and mentoring group delivers and sells PTC University Training solutions. This helps ensure you not only get the technology you need to dramatically improve the way you design, manufacture, and service your products and enterprise, but the knowledge to fully take advantage of your software investment.
EAC was one of the first authorized training partners. Why should you care? We have more experience mapping organization’s needs to the perfect PTC Training Course. We have more experienced instructors ready to deliver PTC Training Class content and customized training to create additional value for students and organizations. It also means we know a lot about what people want from a training experience, and what they should ask of their provider.

Many people see professional development, or continuing education, to somehow be exempt from the due diligence one would apply to…say, selecting a college. The truth is, it is important to carefully choose the company and people your organization uses to deliver a comprehensive PTC training course schedule or a single PTC training class.

Here are some questions you should ask a potential training provider:

• Do they have real-world experience using the products?
• Do they understand how various solutions work together?
• Do they offer training on multiple PTC training course segments (PLM, PDM, CAD, AR, IoT, etc.)?
• What delivery methods to they offer? (in center, onsite, remote (EACLive!)
• Do they offer extended access to Instructors for questions after a course ends?
• Do they offer the ability to audit a PTC training class for a year, in case a student needs a refresher?
• What is their cancellation policy? (Things come up, sometime a plan doesn’t work out. Here’s ours)
• Do they offer volume pricing discounts?
• Are there any current promotions?

We are here to help you know all the picks, clicks, and technology tricks to make sure everyone on your team is a power user. You need to complete projects as fast as possible – good training makes that possible. Here is our current training calendar. It displays all of the currently scheduled Creo training, Windchill training, and Arbortext training. Please contact us if you don’t see a specific training course. We may be able to add it to the existing calendar or deliver the training class specifically to your organization.

Why is STEM education so important for today’s workforce? Even though career fields related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics are responsible for more than half of our sustained economic expansion, only 5.9% of the total U.S. workforce was employed in those fields in 2015 (Household Averages Annual Data, U.S. Department of Labor, Bereau of Labor Statistics.) That means the demand for STEM-educated professionals is at an all time high. Developing these skills is critical to maintaining healthy economic growth in the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Education calls STEM classes the ‘education for global leadership’. STEM careers could be anything from an industrial engineer who creates systems for managing production processes to a microbiologist who studies the growth, structure, and development of small organisms. Take a look at Minnesota State CareerWise Education’s list of top STEM careers that are in high demand.

You’re probably wondering what some of the benefits there are to taking on a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics field. Here are 5 great reasons you should consider a career in STEM.

Innovation Leadership

A career in STEM means a career on the cutting edge. It means positioning yourself in front of the next ground-breaking technology. You will be working with leading-edge technology in fields like computer technology, medicine, engineering, design, and robotics. These fields give you the freedom and flexibility in your job to clear a path for new ideas and innovation.

Industry Growth

As technology continues to develop, STEM careers are the fastest-growing careers in the United States – and the world. The number of American STEM careers is projected to grow to more than 9 million between 2012 and 2022.

Having a background in a STEM gives you a competitive advantage when applying for jobs and the flexibility to change jobs easily because your skills are cross-marketable. For example, an engineering student can pursue chemical engineering, computer science, or environmental science and a student with a degree in biological sciences can also pursue opportunities to work in research labs, pharmaceutical companies, medical school, or veterinary schools.

Less Competition

There are 3.2 million jobs in STEM fields that go unfilled every year because there is no one qualified to fill the positions. There is a staggering amount of open STEM positions – pursue a career that secures you a spot in the workforce. The high demand for professionals in these fields means that you won’t have to sweat the interview – because no one else can do the job they’re asking for.

High Pay

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 93 out of 100 STEM jobs had wages above the national average in 2015. Forty-seven percent of people with a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field make more than people with a Ph.D. in other careers. You’re almost guaranteed to make more money than others that choose a different career path.

Take a look at the average salaries for entry-level, post-graduate STEM majors and non-STEM majors from an article written in Business Insider:

STEM major (overall) — $65,000

• Computer and information sciences — $72,600
• Engineering and engineering technology — $73,700
• Biological and physical sciences, science technology, mathematics, and agricultural sciences — $50,400

Non-STEM majors (overall) — $49,500

• General studies — $53,700
• Social sciences — $46,700
• Humanities — $43,100
• Health care fields — $58,900
• Business — $55,500
• Education —$40,500

Job Satisfaction

High paychecks aren’t the only reward in these fields – the real reward is a high level of job satisfaction and paving the way for future generations.

Working in a STEM field requires rigorous work ethic and the ability to communicate ideas clearly, think creatively, and work with a team. To succeed, individuals who pursue STEM careers need to be dedicated, curious, organized, detail-oriented, and have good time management skills. Because innovation doesn’t stop, STEM skills will always be in demand. Couple this with the intrinsic benefits and pride that come from scientific breakthrough, and there is little argument for a career in anything but a STEM field. So, what are you waiting for?

Lakeville South High School’s STEM Academy is encouraging students to problem-solve in a whole new way. Kurt Weber switched his role from a biology and chemistry teacher to teaching STEM classes 4 years ago. He says there is no going back. He loves teaching students the curriculum behind the subjects that drive these classes – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Using STEM Education to Remove Unfavorable Learned Behaviors

Weber says that when he caught one of his students on his phone during class, he confronted him. The student replied that he was ‘done’ with his project. Weber says this gave him an opportunity to bring that student around the lab to show him all of the things he could be doing in addition to the project that he had already finished. He explained to the student that learning doesn’t stop once the task is over.

He explained that the kid wasn’t being snarky by saying he was ‘done’ and he didn’t take it that way either. Weber says that every kid has the ability to problem solve at a very young age but that ability is stripped away so fast with traditional learning methods in the classroom.

Weber goes on to say that most kids are conditioned to only do what they are told and nothing more. Following orders and checking things off lists leaves no room for creativity or innovation. No one has really given the students that kind freedom in their learning until the STEM Academy came along and started changing the way students think and approach problems.

To continue learning outside of the realm of what a student is asked to do is what will help that student in real-world situations as an adult.

STEM principles are teaching students how to lead, not follow

“They learn inherently, by failing,” Weber says. “Being in this class gives them an opportunity to solve a problem on their own – and the worst thing they could do is fail. They’re so scared of failing.”

He explained that when rulers were taken away and students were asked to measure a piece of equipment with which were working – they didn’t know what to do and got frustrated. This frustration comes from the fear of failing. Weber then asks the students what else they could use in the room to measure the object? A student came up with the idea of counting the ceiling tiles or using another frame of reference like a book, or a backpack. This is exactly what Weber is looking for. Out-of-the-box ideas. Critical thinking. Solutions that are derived from limited resources.

“We don’t tell them how to do it. We tell them how to get from point A to point B. It changes the way you look at everything in the world.” At this point, the students wanted to learn. They were excited to accomplish a small win and were motivated to keep on going. Weber says that the fear of failure is the norm and we need to combat it. “Failure, in general, is something they try to steer clear of. We need to tell them to lean into failure.”

What does the STEM curriculum look like?

Other class electives were unintentionally eliminated when the STEM classes became available because registration in other classes dropped. What’s so appealing about these classes and why have they become so popular at Lakeville South?

Weber gives his students the freedom to work at their own pace; an opportunity rarely given to students in other classes. Students have to complete 8 semesters of math, 8 semesters of science, Engineering Your Future 1, Engineering Your Future 2, and then get to choose one of the STEM pathways; Computer Programming, Biomedical, Engineering, or Industrial Technologies. To complete the STEM Academy, students complete a capstone project in which they can work with a local business to solve real problems. Weber says that he’s been able to create his own curriculum for the STEM classes and it’s been evolving every year as additional lab equipment, like 3D printers, and technology are made available to his students.

Weber says that there was no need to convince students to join the class. He says that the students bragged enough about their STEM class that there was no need to make additional efforts to gain students’ attention when it was time to choose electives. As far as keeping students’ attention in the STEM classes, Weber says he frequently has to tell students to go home because the school day had already ended hours ago.

How does the STEM Academy benefit students who don’t end up pursuing a career in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics? Weber says that the classes give them confidence in their ability to solve a problem. “They don’t need someone to tell them what to do. They need a mentor.”

Learn more about Lakeville South High School’s STEM Academy here.