LIMA, Ohio — Manufacturing jobs are in such high demand that a northwest Ohio college will provide free training to those who live in the area.

If you want to know how to handle a complex computerized manufacturing machine, there could be a career in your future.

“In and around Lima, in this part of Ohio, we have a lot of CNC manufacturers that are looking for workers,” said Ahmad Mehmood, assistant professor at Rhodes State College.  

Currently, the college is helping meet the high demand for manufacturing in northwest Ohio by offering a course in basic machining and computer numerical control, or CNC.

“Our program brings in students that don’t know anything about CNC and introduce them to this idea of CNC. It tells them how to program machines, run them and how to make parts,” said Mehmood. 

The training will provide people with the basics of manual machining and introduce working with computers.

“You can’t make the amount of products that we need manually as accurate as these machines can do,” said the assistant professor. 

The free course comprises 42 hours of classroom and lab training plus 33 hours of online training.

Students can learn how to make virtually interchangeable parts.

“So I can make a thousand parts that look exactly the same. It’s impossible for human beings to do that, but because we use computers to do all the computations for us, it becomes very easy for us,” said Mehmood. 

Completing this course will allow students to enter the manufacturing workforce at an entry level.

“We can use computers to do most of the hard part for us, and it’s really, the computer is the brains, and we are really the driver of the computer,” he said.

This free course is open to only Lima city residents age 18 and older. The programs start next month.

Classes will be held March 15-April 20, on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings from 5-8 p.m.

The registration deadline is March 8.