October was an exciting month for students and instructors in the mechatronics shop at Goodwin Technical High School in New Britain, CT. The reason: This was the first of several schools in the state that will be adopting Level-1 of the Festo Industry 4.0 Certification Program (FI4.0CP).

FI4.0CP level 1 is part of a much broader program, which gives students the ability to learn foundational skills in core mechatronics technologies and build stackable credentials in up to 3-levels.

Although equipment had arrived earlier in the season, instructors Mark Zapp and Steven Orie wanted to wait until students settled into their hybrid classes, so they could participate in the uncrating.

Having the privilege of being the first group of students to lay-hands on this brand new equipment "...was a great experience." Said Zapp, who has been an instructor in the CT Tech High School system since 2012.

Training systems included:

Additionally, curriculum will be delivered by the new cloud-based Festo LX (Learning Xperience) Learning Management System. The Festo LX will enable students to take "eLabs" in school using the equipment and "eLearning" courses be done remotely on PC, tablet or cell phone, thanks to the new HTML5 built platform.