Swiss Automation delivered a CNC Swiss lathe to Elgin Community College on Wednesday (June 19, 2019) as part of a $1.3 million donation of machinery, training, and software that will enable ECC to offer CNC advanced programming certifications.

Officials say the certification creates a pathway to middle skills jobs like applications engineer where job growth is expected to be over 9 percent through 2026.

ECC is now the only community college in the area to have a Swiss machine, enhancing ECC’s ability to become a regional training facility and leading contributor to workforce growth.

“And let’s face it, the machine is just really cool!” ECC said in a news release.