Workforce Development in AECO with Autodesk Learning Partner Programs

JARED COELHO: Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining today's session. As we do with so many presentations here at Autodesk, we're going to start off with a note from our legal team, our safe harbor statement, essentially saying, any forward-looking predictions-- take them as prognostication or estimates of what will happen in the future. Plans always change. And so don't make any investment decisions based on what you see in this presentation.

But thank you for joining this session on workforce development in architecture, engineering, construction, and operations with Autodesk Learning Partner Programs. I'm very excited to be here today and to introduce such an esteemed group of folks. Hi, everyone. My name is Jared Coelho. I work on the Partnerships team in the AECO business within Autodesk, and I'm going to start off today's presentation with talking about some research that Autodesk has done related to workforce development.

And then I'm going to hand it over to Has Nwamadi from ThinkEDU, one of our learning partners who were the machinery behind some of our learning partner programs. So we work pretty closely with Has, and he's got a deep experience in this area. And then we're going to-- finally, we're going to wrap up with Ron McGuire, last but not least. Ron has got a deep experience in educating the future leaders of the industry, both from educating from an apprentice perspective and the technological perspective as well.

So to kick things off, I'm going to speak for a few minutes about some of the high level research that we've done on this question of talent development. And so I'm alluding to our 2024 State of Design & Make, which is a very broad research effort that Autodesk has undergone the last several years. And the underlying machinery of this research is mostly survey data. So as you can see here, we've surveyed thousands of leaders, futurists, experts-- a lot of these are customers of ours-- to get their input on challenges and opportunities today and tomorrow. And this survey data is also sort of augmented with some qualitative interviews, so it's a very robust data set.

And these are the high level insights from the report. Now, we're not going to be diving too deep into all of these areas. You can see business resilience is a big part of the research. Sustainability is as well. For the purposes of this presentation, we're going to be focusing on that area in the bottom left-- developing, attracting, developing and retaining talent. Although as we go through, you'll see there are some sort of connections between what we found in business resilience and sustainability and how that applies to talent development.

So talent remains one of the biggest concerns for the industry, across all of the industries that Autodesk serves. And it's been that way for many years. I've talked to so many customers who say that their biggest challenge is finding and retaining high quality talent, and that's still true today, although it's kind of bumped down just a little bit. So you'll see here in 2023, attracting, training, and retaining talent was the biggest concern for people across the industries that we serve.

It's gone down. Now, it's in second place just behind cost management and cost control, but still a very, very prominent concern amongst all of these sort of futurists and experts and customers that we surveyed in our Design & Make Report. And you can see all this sort of broken out here on the right ranked by industry, but in architecture, engineering, construction operations, indeed attracting and retaining talent is the second highest challenge.

So we say competition for talent is a little less intense, but it's not over. It's still a major concern. It will continue to be a major concern. And one of the things that really came out from this report is that disconnect between the need for developing talent and the perception that talent development is important and then, on the other side, how to do it. Do you feel equipped to do this? And over and over across all geographies that we researched, there is a big delta between people perceiving it as a high need, something that's important, and then actually the ability to implement. And we're going to talk about that in a little bit more detail.

But one thing before I move on, I want to draw everyone's attention to in the bottom right, that figure that says 71% considered digital maturity a top attractor of talent and then 72% for sustainability. And that's what I alluded to earlier when I was talking about the connection between business resilience and sustainability in attracting talent. This is certainly something that came out in the report. It's something I've seen in my firsthand experience talking to learning partners and customers is that you can use your own digital maturity and digital sophistication as a competitive advantage to attract new talent, right?

You're certainly more appealing as a firm if you put forth how progressive you are from a technological perspective. That makes it much more interesting, makes your firm more interesting to the talent that exists in that industry. And the same with sustainability-- it's increasingly important to young folks coming into the industry to work for firms that have some sort of social consciousness. And that can be a differentiator and something that young folks are looking for.

So upskilling is essential but out of reach for many. That's the number five insight. And here, we have some data that says 77% say upskilling is important, but only 38% say they have the necessary skills and resources to design internal training programs. So that's the crux of the problem. This is another narrower slice looking at it, what the breakdown looks like. And you can see that percentage of respondents who say they don't have what they need-- only 20% strongly disagree. So there's a huge universe of folks where there's room for improvement, giving resources, giving processes or developing them to help develop and retain talent.

So here's a little look sort of across the world, that 77/38 figure. That's the global figure. But you'll see that it's pretty consistent across the world. We've got this big delta between the need for upskilling and then do I have the ability, do I have the resources to design these sort of training programs.

The challenge internally when running trading programs is mostly due to balancing upskilling needs and the ongoing project demands, so that can come through in the report. It's something I've experienced in my own work here at Autodesk, and it's almost like any other investment. You're going to make a financial investment. You're going to make a technological investment, an investment in adopting a new technology. Really, you're trading off with the future. There's an opportunity cost there. It's like, I'm going to spend some time today to, whether it's invest my money, invest time in learning a new technology, or adopting a new technology, or in this case, we're talking about developing talent.

I'm going to spend time developing a program to nurture talent at my firm, to advance their careers, to make them more productive. But what that does is it takes away from the things that I need to get done today. And that's a fine balancing act. It's like, how much time am I spending thinking about the future versus solving the problems that my firm face today?

Digital skills are in demand is another big part of what came out of our Design & Make Report. Particularly, AI has emerged as the top digital skill. So I thought just-- this next slide is very broad, and it covers all of Autodesk's industries. So there's a lot to digest here. So I'll just take it in turn.

But you can see that these are the three main verticals at Autodesk services-- architecture, engineering, construction operations there on the left; design and manufacturing; and media and entertainment. And here are the priority skills based on this giant piece of research that we conducted. And you can see it's kind of broken out by industry. So obviously, we can care a little bit more for the purposes of this conversation about architecture, engineering, construction, and operations. And it's going to be different depending on what you do within that vertical, right? So digital design skills are obviously much more important if you're rendering architectural services or engineering services.

But what's interesting here is the theme that you see. And most people maybe have noticed a pattern here, that ranked number one in so many areas, the ability to implement and work with AI. So that's true in architecture, engineering, construction, operations, design and manufacturing, and for most areas within media and entertainment. So this is really a future-looking-- this is an important characteristic to have. It's going to give a young person a competitive advantage if they can work with AI.

And this doesn't mean I'm an AI engineer. I'm developing software. But it's having some fluidity, having some competency with artificial intelligence. And that just means being able to define it, knowing what it is, and then knowing what tools are out there to help you do your job better. You don't need to know the mechanics necessarily behind how the software works, but knowing what a given AI tool can do to help you be more productive, whether that's doing design work or looking at issues on a job site or that's creating presentations or writing briefs or going over legal documents, the proliferation of AI has so many applications across different industries and different workflows. So that really rose to the top as the top skill of the future.

And then the other main insight when it came to talent in our Design & Make Report is that companies are taking a multi-pronged approach to solving the talent problem. There's no one this is the solution. This is what you have to do. And it is a sort of a ray of sunshine here that it's becoming a smaller challenge. And that was a very welcome sign because it's been such a huge challenge over the years. But it's still a pretty big problem, getting access to skilled talent being a barrier to growth. That's a major problem for most firms.

So the ways that companies are bridging the gap, again from a high level-- and we'll talk a little bit more about that later in the presentation-- is by amping up their talent recruitment efforts and diversifying their training and upskilling. So you've got to think about, if you're going to attract talent, you're going to retain talent, a big part of that is giving that talent the ability to grow and learn, right? So if your employees are feeling stagnant in their working environment as is, they're probably not going to stick around very long. And you're also-- they're going to be less productive. Investing in talent, development, and education not only retains your employees, but it helps them be more productive.

A couple of other things that sort of rose up in the report were obviously pay and benefits was another big one. Obviously, that's sort of with the extrinsic motivators to get people to stay at a firm. That's why they go to earn a living. But then some of the more intrinsic motivators also bubbled up in the report. So that being things like is this a firm do something-- a force for good in the world. Do they care about the environment and sustainability? Are they pushing the bounds of technology, and is it going to help me grow and learn as an individual and human being? Those are all things that sort of factored into helping firms bridge the talent gap.

And the last point here before I turn things over to Has is the younger generations have much higher turnover. And so it came up over and over in the report and in some of our research that firms were saying, it's just kind of a new reality. You may not be able to retain that employee for 10, 20, 30 years like you could in generations past. People are much more used to moving jobs. And so it's more important that you have a really streamlined onboarding process for bringing new people onto your firm and also a better knowledge management system.

We have some wisdom. You can't have too many or any really linchpins within your firm, somebody who, if you lose this person, it's going to be catastrophic for the business. To the extent you do have people like that in your firm, you need to do more knowledge sharing, more mentoring, more cataloging of what they know so that if that person did leave, it wouldn't be catastrophic for the firm.

So those are some of the high-level insights from the Design & Make Report. Excuse me. With that, I'm going to pass it over to Has Nwamadi, who's going to talk us through some of our learning partner programs.

HAS NWAMADI: Thank you, Jared, for sharing that insight from the Design & Make insights. I think the information you were provided was very invaluable. If we can go to the next slide, Jared, that'd be great. Thank you, sir. My name is Has Nwamadi, and I'm the Vice President of Learning Services with ThinkEDU. The Autodesk learning partners provide learning services in over 30 languages with a worldwide footprint in over 200 countries. Each learning partner program addresses a specific type of partner and audience of the learner that they actually serve. All learning partner programs are really designed with workforce development and industry skills for the future.

ThinkEDU is the North American distributor of Autodesk training centers. And what we do is work closely with Autodesk learning community, with the goal of achieving better outcomes while delivering quality learning experiences to students, educators, and customers who really want to build expertise or earn certifications. The current state of skills development within the professional industries that Autodesk serves and how Autodesk learning partner programs address industry concerns by creating some impactful programs.

For example, if you're a qualified college or university, you can become an authorized training center to enable learners to adapt in an ever-changing world. Or if you're a correctional institution, this program ensures offenders have the job skills they need to stay in a positive path toward employment when they are released. As a nonprofit organization, you're entitled to join a unique program to help you serve your constituency while learning Autodesk software products.

Whether you have a makerspace or just provide Autodesk training, we can help you put together a compelling program for nonprofit libraries or makerspace. Finally, when you are a student or a professional, you can stand out with an Autodesk certification in Architecture, Engineering, Construction; Product Design and Manufacturing. You get to really futureproof your resume with four different levels of certification.

So let's talk a little bit about the widening skills gap. We know the skills gap is widening. Retirement is driving a large number of open positions across multiple professional industries. Research shows there will be over 2 million unfulfilled jobs in manufacturing alone. In the AEC Insight Report conducted by KnowledgePoint, research showed 48% of all demand for 3D graphics is in engineering, and 1 in 5 job openings in engineering requires at least one CAD skill. We also learned in Autodesk Design & Make 2024, 81% of survey respondents agreed in upskilling is important, but only 45% say their organizations have the necessary skills and resources to really design internal training programs.

However, these limitations are not stopping companies from offering any training at all. For instance, 73% are implementing continuous learning. The most common ways companies are bridging the talent gap is by amping up their talent recruitment, as Jared just mentioned. Those efforts, by diversifying their training and upskilling efforts, these include enhancements to in-house training programs, online courses, diverse forms of self-directed learning, such as in product queues, whose success makes them a viable alternative to training traditional software courses.

So the next slide, please, Jared. The leaders see the value in training and upskilling their workforce. But not everyone knows how, and many organizations lack the expertise needed to really design effective internal training programs. So Autodesk research shows companies are facing similar challenges like industries. This example, you see here is from Design & Make industries. Now let's look at some of Autodesk learning partner programs and how we identify partners who align with our customers' learning needs and their requirements.

Next one as well. Thank you, Jared. So Autodesk research shows organizations want to establish partnerships with universities and other institutions to collaborate on curriculum development, internship programs, and research projects that fosters a pipeline of skilled talent and ensures that educational programs align with this industry needs. We've been hearing from continuing education departments about their needs to generate more commercial training opportunities while also providing compelling programs to serve their alumni and these companies with their graduate's work.

The Autodesk Training Center program is also beneficial for colleges and universities because the demand for well-trained users of Autodesk software is increasing, leading to a greater need for up-to-date professional training. Additionally, Autodesk is really looking to welcome more partners into the ATC channel to support the business growth as well.

So let's talk a little bit about how we provide recognized value to our learners. So Autodesk Training Centers are part of that Autodesk learning partner community. They're authorized by Autodesk, and their educators are vetted and prepared to become Autodesk certified instructors. The ATCs, who were educational institutions, have the ability to follow former students over time during their continuous learning journey. They have the ability to reach out to other educators and industry professionals in their community and provide quality learning services that go beyond degree-earning programs.

So authorized by Autodesk, these colleges and universities train centers are identifying and driving new revenue streams for their schools and building a foundation of partnership with Autodesk industry professionals. So let's take a look at a quote here. This quote that you're seeing here is from Angelo. Angelo Lampousis-- he's from City College of New York. He is the Executive Director with the Charles B. Rangel Infrastructure Workforce Initiative. And you can see here, they just recently became an Autodesk Training Center. They're doing a very robust partnership with us. And the results so far, they've been pretty positive. But please take the time after this presentation to take a look a little bit deeper into this particular quote. It's pretty exciting.

So let's talk a little bit about some of the Autodesk Training Center program benefits. So Autodesk offers many benefits to Autodesk Training Centers such as but not limited to access to Autodesk resources-- so it's really providing to get access to a variety of Autodesk training materials, including official curriculum, certification resources, and software tools. Then there's also the certification and the accreditation. The program supports providers in becoming Autodesk-certified instructors, which enhances their credibility and ability to deliver high quality training.

Then there's also the marketing and promotion aspect. Autodesk offers promotional support, including listing on Autodesk official website, and marketing materials, which is really helping those providers to reach a wider pool of audience.

So we're now going to talk a little bit about education, how it's decreasing recidivism. The next slide, please. Thank you, Jared. So what I want to do is to share with you a quote from April Clark. April Clark is a staff services manager at the Center of the Career Technical Education Workforce with CALPIA. CALPIA is one of the world's largest correctional institutions.

So there are several obstacles that incarcerated adults must face upon their release from prison, including the prospect of unemployment. That is why we are hearing from correctional facilities, vocational training or career technical education programs in prison that are designed to teach inmates about general employment skills or skills needed for specific jobs and industries. The overall goal, however, of vocational training is to reduce inmates' risk of recidivism, right? By teaching them marketable skills, they can use to find and retain employment following release from prison.

So vocational and technical training programs can also reduce institutional problem behaviors by replacing inmates' idle time with constructive work. And this is actually a reference from Wilson, Gallagher, and McKinsey back in 2000. In addition, some vocational training programs can assist in the operations of prisons by having inmates assist in institutional maintenance tasks. So this is really great for a correctional facility because the more users who are well trained to expertly use Autodesk software, the bigger the business demand and the bigger the need for the up-to-date professional training.

So a little bit about CALPIA's Autodesk offering-- so, along with their Autodesk program, CALPIA CTE also offers training, employment, and accredited industry certifications in other fields-- for example, ironworking construction labor, tool and die, carpentry and computer coding. And so this is how CALPIA, one of the Autodesk training centers focused on correctional institutions-- the next slide-- is really building a better future for and working in collaboration with Autodesk.

Now I'm going to share with you one more quote-- the next slide. It is from Rich Gardner, and he is the director of the Roughriders Industry, which is part of the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. So basically, what you can see there is that they became an Autodesk Training Center in part to give credentials to incarcerated individuals who are either enrolled in our education department or offering or participating in the Roughriders Industries job skills training program. Employment is one of the most important factors in really decreasing the recidivism. So that's very important for them as a correctional institution.

So what I'm going to do now is talk with you a little bit about the Membership Training Provider Program. We'll go to the next slide, Jared. So technology is driving many organization-wide initiatives, which has really contributed to the technology sector outpacing other industries. As a result, the need for skilled technology talent to meet business demands has grown and will continue to grow. The construction industry has seen rapid technological development, and it is now even more important than skilled labor exists to serve the market in these particular technologies.

With this program, the Membership Training Provider Program, we can easily meet the demands of the market. It's important to note that this program was really created through successful collaboration between Autodesk and the national leadership of major North American trade unions and personnel who manage their membership training programs. This program really allows unions, the training centers, the ability to acquire and use Autodesk software at their training sites for an annual low cost subscription license fee.

The Autodesk program really enhanced BIM and CAD training efforts at current training sites, while also allowing these new sites to offer enhanced training initiatives with Autodesk technology in order to really bridge the gap between technology, the construction industry, and the classroom.

So let's talk a little bit about the MTP program current participants, a quick high level overview. So IBEW, for example, or UA, has roughly over 325,000 current participants. The ITI has a very large number as well. And then we also have the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. That one has over 522,416. The International Brotherhood, IBEW, has over 704,000 current participants as well.

So I'm going to share with you one of the quotes here, and this is from Barbara Cox. She is the secondary site manager at IBEW Local 617. Through the addition of the Autodesk Revit and Navisworks, their instructors have expanded their fifth year program to more accurately reflect the construction coordination and management software utilized by their contractors within the actual field.

So let me highlight some of the MTP program benefits to you in this next slide. So the MTPs will have access to Autodesk training evaluation system, the training participant survey system for MTPs to request training, expert experience, feedback from their members who attend the course. The TES provides a mechanism for MTPs to deliver evaluations and course completion certificates to each of their members.

There's also the technical support, so the members are able to receive technical support to assist with software-related questions and training challenges, thus ensuring they can actually provide accurate and up-to-date instruction. Then there's the network opportunities. The program facilitates connections with other training professionals and Autodesk experts, so it's really providing that valuable opportunity for collaboration and knowledge access. Then there's that exclusive discount, the cost savings that we just mentioned earlier, where members are able to receive a cost savings on the Autodesk software and other related products as well.

Another unique benefit on this next slide is talking a little bit about the Membership Training program, the Learn at Home License. This benefit allows for an individual to gain access to Autodesk products to their apprentices or their journeymen outside of the actual classroom. And what we've heard is that this is really a game changer, and it really allows for further and continuous learning.

So what we're going to talk now on the next couple of slides is really about the Learning Partner Foundation. So the next slide is the learning foundation, the partner foundation is focused on really many building blocks. The first of which is to really deliver a community of qualified instructors, meaning they're certified by Autodesk, globally recognized for their Autodesk product expertise, provide quality learning experiences to Autodesk learning community.

Also, we're verifying instructors product certification and a claim badge, which means that we're providing mechanisms for certified instructors to really self-promote their Autodesk product expertise, distinguish a certified instructor from a non-certified, that verifiable digital badge, which really complements product certification. Going into the silver, gold, and platinum badge really denotes certified instructors' continuous tenure within their actual learning community. And then also affiliate certified instructors with learning partners, which is required in affiliation with Autodesk Training Centers or Autodesk or authorized academic partners, and also legal and compliance benefit for the certified instructor and their learning partner as well.

And this really all dovetails into our next slide here, which is highlighting the Autodesk certifications. Autodesk has made a profound investment in primary and secondary education, including a free offer of Autodesk products to qualified secondary educational institutions. Their educators and their students are enrolled in degree-earning programs.

So in the market defined by disruption, Autodesk understands education and professional customers require more. They want professional certifications. Autodesk certifications are a way to validate design and make skills, advanced careers, or get hired in a new role, and accelerate business opportunities. Autodesk future-focused certifications help these organizations differentiate talent and innovate with new technology skills and productivity.

Now, the Autodesk learning partners can also purchase certification exam vouchers for their learners from authorized learning partner distributors. They also have access to certification prep courses, which allow them the ability to create quality learning experience with the integration of current technologies and workforce info in really any stage of the curriculum. And they can deliver these training to support the growth of immersive skills in every industry.

Now the Autodesk certifications include the Associate, which is a post-secondary student, students and emerging professionals with Autodesk software, knowledge, and skills who are ready to really enter the job market or shift to a new career. Then you have the Professional. The professional is an advanced student solving workflow and design challenges who actually want to move their skills, research, and career forward and stand out within their particular market. Then you have the Expert. These are really for graduate students or really leading professionals within their industries.

And that really helps us go into the program authorization and annual renewal. So the authorized ATC and MTP learning partners can order up to 25 single user subscriptions of the most popular Autodesk products, including Fusion, Autodesk Construction Cloud, Revit, AutoCAD, and Navisworks. Each ATC or MEP experiences a benefit that really aligned with their training services. So each program also has specific program requirements, which are explained thoroughly when you become a learning partner distributor during the pre-authorization process.

So depending on the program authorization, a learning partner can use Autodesk products to really provide learning services to their learners in the following learning environment. So it can be delivered in a classroom, delivered with a remote conferencing tool, delivered with a virtual software, delivered using an approved mobile device on campus to student educators, e-learning course, certification exam facilitation, or even staff enablement.

And so with that said, I really want to thank everyone for their time. And now what I'm going to do is to hand the baton over to Ron McGuire with the International Training Institute. Thank you so much for your time.

RON MCGUIRE: Thank you, Has, and thank you, Jared, for the introduction. My name is Ron McGuire. As Jared said, I am Director of VDC and Technology Training for the International Training Institute, also known as ITI. Next slide. ITI is the training arm of the SMART International Union. ITI is jointly sponsored by SMART, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, formally known as SMWIA, and Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association, SMACNA. Next slide.

ITI supports apprenticeship and advanced career training for union workers in the sheet metal industry throughout the United States and Canada. We have-- there are approximately 150 training centers-- JATCs-- across the United States and Canada. ITI produces a standard curriculum supported by a wide variety of training materials to apprentices and journey workers who work in these specialized disciplines. Could be architectural sheet metal; building information modeling; BIM; HVAC service and refrigeration; commercial HVAC; residential HVAC; Testing, Adjusting and Balancing, TAB; sign industry; industrial welding; and roading. Next slide.

Membership training program-- as Has mentioned, there are a number of really good reasons why you would participate in the membership training program. Next slide. This is going to create a better future. Why does ITI participate in the MTP program? Technological advances in our industry-- the world of the sheet metal industry is really evolving. Times are changing really fast, and we in our training centers need to be able to provide this training and use of the Autodesk products.

Our contractors are looking at productivity and efficiency of the workers that they are employing. So to have this avenue through the MTP program provides you a very, very good avenue to train the applications. Next slide. MTP program participation-- participation provides access to genuine Autodesk products that are utilized in our industry. Learn at Home Licenses-- this allows any apprentice or journeyperson the opportunity to access a Learn at Home License so they can continue their education outside of the classroom at the JATC. It also provides them the opportunity-- at ITI, we're developing self-paced courses. Currently, we have one in Revit. We have plans to do more of them as we move into the future to provide that opportunity to our members.

It also provides Autodesk partnership opportunities and ability to promote our members and their work. Has mentioned about the Autodesk Authorized Training Center. The JATCs have the opportunity-- training centers have the opportunity to become a testing center of whether it's Revit, AutoCAD, whatever it may be. They also have the ability to get their instructors recognized as an Autodesk-certified instructor, which also brings merit there. Next slide.

What are SMART members using? We're using a number of different applications. It can be anywhere from the Autodesk Construction Cloud, AutoCAD, Fabrication suite, Inventor, Navisworks, ReCap Pro, Revit, and more. One thing with our apprentices, any of our first-year apprentices that are coming into the program, depending on where you are in the country-- it doesn't matter where you are in the country-- they're getting access to an iPad. All right. Think about ACC as a good opportunity to learn that application and utilize that on the iPad. Next slide.

ITI local participation in the MTP program-- currently, there are 93 JATC training centers that take advantage of the MTP program. So roughly about 2/3 of our training centers throughout the US and Canada. Learning labs-- the labs will vary from size dependent on where you are. There are some labs that have over 25 computers. Some have up to 50 computer stations throughout their training center. There are smaller labs that consist of 5, so it can vary from area to area.

It's also the applications-- Autodesk applications are also used in various shop areas and workspaces. VR learning labs is another big thing that's really moved our training forward. It can be anything with a couple different simulation packages, also a 3D scanning that develops 3D point clouds that are utilized. You can use a 3D point cloud and ReCap Pro to generate that. So definitely technology in the training centers only helps to employ our members. Next slide.

Workforce development-- workforce development is a big thing in our union and in SMART and with SMACNA as well. Next slide. I'm going to talk about two programs here. The first program is Helmets to Hardhats. Helmets to Hardhats is a program that's operated by NABTU, which is the North American Building Trade Unions. And this program allows veterans the opportunity to go work in the construction industry, whatever trade that they have a desire to potentially make a career out of.

The other program that I'm going to discuss is the SMART Heroes program. This is operated by ITI, cosponsored by SMART and SMACNA. Next slide, please. So this program is really unique because it's not-- eligible soldiers that are getting close to their time to being discharged from the military, they have an opportunity to show interest and actually interview and apply for this program. The program is currently in two locations. The first one is Dupont, Washington, which was established in 2017, and a second location in Colorado Springs, which that one was established in 2019.

This program is a seven-week course. And as I said, it's when they're towards their end of their military career, seven-week course. It consists of 224 hours. They go to school from Tuesday to Friday. Monday, they're required to be on their base. So next slide, please. This course consists of they get a wide variety of things in this seven-week course. They get OSHA 30. They get CORE HVAC. They get math. They get layout, reading plans and specs, welding, architectural sheet metal, and a little bit of building information modeling.

I can tell you firsthand, I taught a number of these classes back in 2017. And when we bring those soldiers into the training center-- in particular, both of those locations I was at-- but you bring those soldiers in, and they have no idea that we do this as sheet metal workers. And we use AutoCAD, or we use Navisworks. So they were really amazed and really, really excited about the opportunity to potentially use these applications after they learn the industry and learn the trade because it's something that you need to learn and experience everything, whether it's in the shop or a field, to be able to put it into that computer environment and the 3D world.

So it's definitely an opportunity that we've exposed to them to try to build the next generation and the future and the leaders in the BIM or the VDC world. Next slide, please.

Here's just some numbers since the inception of the program. Obviously, I said it started in 2017. The top location is our Dupont location. We've had 394 graduates. Actually, that ends up being 41 cohorts, which is basically the class of seven-- seven-week long class. So there's 41 of those. Out of the 394 graduates, 269 of them are still working in the industry. And then you can see the rest of the numbers as it goes across the screen there. And then the bottom is the Local 9, which is Colorado Springs location. And there's been 219 graduates of that program since that program started in 2019. And roughly almost 50% of those-- 104 of them-- those individuals are still working in the trade, whether it's in that area or another part of the country, if they decided to move back home.

Well, thank you for the opportunity to present here. I will turn it up turn it back over to Jared.

JARED COELHO: Thank you so much Ron and Has. That concludes our presentation for today. We want to really appreciate everyone joining and taking the time to learn about both our Design & Make Reports. To sort of recap, you can search for the Autodesk Design & Make Report, and it'll come right up. It's a wealth of knowledge and research that we've done into some of these questions.

Has, thank you so much for walking us through some of the mechanics and the value of the learning partner programs that Autodesk has implemented. And thank you, Ron, for giving us some real-world insight into what you guys are doing at the ITI and the successes that you guys have had up to this point. So thanks, everyone, again for joining, and we really appreciate it.