College's Autodesk Training Center Achieves New Certification Level

Pennsylvania College of Technology's Workforce Development & Continuing Education Office, a premier-level Autodesk Authorized Training Center, has met new requirements established by the software company to earn "2007 Ready" designation.

Autodesk the creator of such computer-aided drafting software as AutoCAD and Inventor holds its Authorized Training Centers to various standards. WDCE has been an Autodesk Authorized Training Center since 1990, providing noncredit AutoCAD and AutoCAD-related product training to industry professionals and educators across the state.

Autodesk carefully selects its authorized training centers and continually monitors them to ensure the quality of the training they provide.

To meet the 2007 Ready designation, each instructor who teaches a course in Autodesk software for the training center must pass an Autodesk Partner Service Exam on one of the software titles. The exam takes, on average, six to seven hours to complete. To pass, an instructor must answer 86 percent of the questions correctly. All of the instructors who have taken the test for WDCE have passed it on the first attempt.

In addition, for each software product a training center would like to teach, at least one instructor must pass that software package's Partner Service Exam. Because Autodesk releases updated versions of its software each year, new exams must be taken annually, within two months of the software release. This is the first year Autodesk has implemented this set of standards for its authorized training centers.

"The exams are one way Autodesk is using to ensure that a certain level of quality is being maintained in the training," said Craig A. Miller, CAD technology specialist for WDCE.

Since all of the trainers who have passed exams for WDCE are also full- or part-time teachers in Penn College's academic Drafting and CAD Technology Department, it also helps to exhibit the quality of training in these software packages for enrolled Penn College students.

Full-time Penn College faculty members who have passed Partner Service Exams are Jeffrey D. Mather, Dave A. Probst and Katherine A. Walker, all assistant professors of drafting and computer aided design.

Also passing the test was Miller, who, in addition to his job as CAD technology specialist, is an adjunct drafting and computer aided design instructor; and Brian T. Mincemoyer, part-time instructor of computer-aided drafting.

For more information regarding training available through the Workforce Development & Continuing Education Office at Penn College, call (570) 327-4775, send e-mail or visit online .