School Equips Today's Students to Become Tomorrow's Skilled Workforce

Westfield Vocational Technical High School (WVTHS), Westfield, MA, has been equipping students since it first opened in 1911. Machine tool training has been part of its core curriculum since the beginning, as it has always been a trade/technical school. WVTHS offers much to the manufacturing community as there are 40 manufacturing shops in the Westfield area that rely on WVTHS to provide a highly trained, skilled workforce. 

The Manufacturing Technology Program of WVTHS has an enrollment of 55 students with 15 graduating each year. Over the past five years the placement record of graduates entering the precision machining industry has consistently been 95%.

WVTHS teaches students in grades 9-12. One week is spent in the shop and the next week is spent on traditional curriculum. The shop at WVTHS consists of traditional/manual mills and lathes as well as six newly-acquired Doosan CNC machine tools from ABLE Machine Tools Sales, Inc. and Doosan Infracore Machine Tools. The shop is also equipped with a Fanuc EDM and Tesa quality control equipment, including a CMM.

In the classroom the students have a Computer Aided Design (CAD) lab with over $14 million in software provided by Delcam FeatureCAM and CGTech. The CAD lab at WVTHS is used as a training center for Delcam FeatureCAM and CGTech in the summer.

Getting the latest in technology to keep the students current would not be possible without outside involvement. Grants from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and Siemens, along with a $294,000 grant from Congressman John W. Olver for new CNC machine tools supplied by ABLE Machine Tools Sales, Inc. and Doosan Infracore Machine Tools, have helped make this possible. WVTHS has also partnered with the Western Massachusetts Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Associate (NTMA) for their assistance. Sandvik Coromant has donated a $5,000 tooling package. WVTHS also holds an annual golf tournament fundraiser. Proceeds from the last tournament were used to purchase the Tesa CMM.

"All of this helps with our goal to provide our students the skills to be employable in the manufacturing industry, whether that is precision machining, computer aided design, computer numerical programming or quality control as well as provide the skills to pursue many other careers in manufacturing," says Clement Fucci, head instructor of the Manufacturing Technology Department at WVTHS. 

Fucci is himself a graduate of WVTHS, Class of 1974, then it was called the Machine Shop Program. He worked in industry as a Toolmaker at Ev-Rite Tool in Westfield from 1972 until 1985. He started teaching at WVTHS in 1983.