Lincoln Electric is partnering with Tooling U-SME to enhance Lincoln’s trademarked U/Linc welding curriculum platform.
“The new partnership gives Tooling U-SME the authority to administer U/Linc and leverages the company’s extensive access to industry and academia, as well as its competency-based learning and development solutions,” said a recent news release from Lincoln, which is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.
As a provider of manufacturing training solutions, Tooling U-SME works directly with thousands of companies, including over 50 percent of Fortune 500 manufacturers, as well 600 educational institutions across the country, the release said.
The agreement enables U/Linc subscribers to receive additional support and reporting capabilities with Tooling U-SME also able to provide U/Linc as part of its product offerings. The curriculum materials will integrate with popular learning management systems such as Moodle and Blackboard.
“Tooling U-SME has a proven track record of providing solutions that help welding educators enhance their practice, leading to measurable results and improved performance outcomes,” said
Jenny Ogborn
Business development manager for Lincoln Electric's education division
Jason Scales, business development manager for Lincoln Electric’s education division, in the release. “We’re excited about this partnership because it will allow us to make our industry-recognized welding curriculum even easier for welding school instructors and industry trainers to integrate and enhance their welding programming.”
Thirty-five top welding educators developed U/Linc, which contains more than 18,000 pages of curriculum resources, the release noted. The materials leverage more than century of welding training experience at Lincoln.
“For 15 years, we have partnered with Lincoln Electric to bring industry-leading welding content to the manufacturing community, and we are proud to further extend our partnership by providing management support for the company’s U/LINC program,” Jeannine Kunz, vice-president of Tooling U-SME, said in the release. “Our goal, as is Lincoln Electric’s, is to bring the most relevant and forward-thinking content to market, and by providing accessibility to more people, we will ensure the industry’s workforce is well prepared to perform in today’s and tomorrow’s advanced manufacturing world.”
The plan is to migrate U/Linc over to Tooling U-SME this fall. Existing U/Linc subscribers will still be able to access the U/Linc platform in its current form until the transition is completed in January 2020. For more information, visit education.lincolnelectric.com/ulinc.