First, the fun fact. SolidWorks World 2010 will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California. I think this is good for many of us left coasters, but also for those from the Asian Pacific areas and Central America; it means visitors from the East Coast and Europe will have to do more planning.
In a pre-announcement of sorts, Ray spoke about a new program that will start later this year called Engineering Stimulus Package. This program is designed to support engineers who have lost their job through no fault of their own in the current difficult economic environment. A free personal version of SolidWorks will be given to such individuals, along with contact with their local VAR. In a news conference later today, Jeff Ray added that this program is similar to another program implemented by SolidWorks Corp during the last economic downturn. The key difference this time is that this new program will have the goal to help the participicants to achieve a CSWA, which will give them an advantage by providing certification of their skillset related to SolidWorks. He also added that the roll out of this program will be in different stages around the world, but that it will be global (not North American centric). A forecoming official press release will have more details later this year.
Ray announced that there is a new program in Ireland where 18,000 seats will be placed in over 900 schools around the country, giving 16 to 18 year-olds the opportunity to use 3D CAD software earlier in their schooling. Currently, there are over a 1 million students using SolidWorks worldwide.
He made several other announcements that I may cover via other articles.
This is truly GREAT. Im not an engineer and I am retired but I salute SolidWorks Corporation for this very bold step in helping to alleviate some realy problems out there. I’m so proud of having supported SolidWorks. Terrific news.
WOW, what a great offer……….does anyone know when it starts???
In these days where companies announce redundancies days after record profits it’s great to see a large business behave this way!
Hi, it’s Jeff. Thank you for a well-written article. We hope to get this formally announced within the next 30 days, first in North America, later worldwide. We first need to confirm the availability of reseller resources. We couldn’t do this without their help. Thank you for your vote of confidence.
Dear Jeff Ray,
I am very interested in the engineering stimulus program that you mentioned while I was at SWW2009 . I would like to take advantage of it as soon as possible
I’m a Pro/E user, but after March the plant that I work for will close its doors and I’ll become one more in the unemployment list.
In this moment of uncertainty and hopelessness this Engineering Stimulus Package is very good news for me and many, who are in the same situation than I am.
I still stick to the saying “things happen for a reason†and maybe this is the transition for a brighter future.
Thanks SolidWorks for this program and I hope that it becomes implemented soon.