New Haas Technical Education Center in Austria

Haas Automation Europe celebrated the grand opening of another new Haas Technical Education Center (HTEC), in Austria. The new facility, based at the technical school HTL Saalfelden, about 70 km south of Salzburg, houses 13 Haas machines and is Europe's biggest HTEC to date. Around 50 people attended the grand opening, including managers and owners of local manufacturing companies.  DI Architect Norbert Paulitsch, director of the school, and Kommerzialrat Hans Rieder, business executive from the school's board of trustees were also present. Peter Hall, managing director of Haas Automation Europe and Walter Ehtreiber, owner and director of the Austrian Haas Factory Outlet (HFO), joined officials in celebrating the opening and welcoming guests to the event.

The European HTEC programme was launched to counter what Haas regards as one of the greatest threats to sustainable economic development on the continent, the shortage of talented and motivated young people entering precision engineering industry with CNC machining skills. The program provides Haas Automation CNC machine tools to technical learning establishments in Europe and around the world. As part of their studies, students at HTEC establishments use Haas machines and in the process become familiar with the latest CNC machining technology. With this kind of hands-on experience, they are more employable when they finally leave full time education.