Harlow College’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre opened earlier this year, and the £11 million investment included five machining centres and lathes, plus the CAM software to drive them.

Principal tutor Mark Howland says that a number of software systems were considered, and Edgecam (www.edgecam.com) was judged to be the best one for meeting their overall needs.

“It was clear from the initial demonstration that it has both powerful milling and turning capabilities and wasn’t going to be a headache moving on from CAD to CAM. There’s nothing in it that’s scary for the students.”

Simon Boyce, the college’s head of marketing says: “We identified Edgecam as a software solution that was used extensively throughout industry for three- and five-axis milling and for turning.

“When the students progress into work, they’ll be fully trained on it and be able to ‘hit the ground running’. It’s an essential part of our strategy to ensure that the students are completely work-ready when they leave the college.

“Having industry-standard machine tools programmed by Edgecam may give them a distinct advantage over students from other institutions who are applying for the same jobs.”

As well as training apprentices, the centre undertakes R&D work on a commercial basis.

Mr Howland says: “For a manufacturer to take a machine offline for R&D purposes means that it’s not producing a part or component, so it’s losing money.

“We can use our industry-standard machines, programmed by the Edgecam advanced software, to carry out R&D for companies — and even short production runs. Our students can operate the machines, so they’re gaining valuable practical experience of working on real products.”