Lincoln Electric joins forces with Tooling U-SME to strengthen 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. Working directly with thousands of companies, including more than half of all Fortune 500® manufacturers, as well as 600 educational institutions across the country, Tooling U-SME helps to prepare the incumbent and next generation workforce by providing industry-driven curriculum. As part of the agreement, new and current U/LINC subscribers will receive additional support services and reporting capabilities; and Tooling U-SME can now provide the U/LINC platform as part of its broad-range of learning and development product offerings. Curriculum materials will also be integrated with the industry’s most popular learning management systems, such as Blackboard, Moodle and others. 

“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 Jason Scales, Ph.D., business development manager for Lincoln Electric’s Education Division. “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.”

Lincoln Electric established U/LINC to help welding educators find the detailed curriculum resources needed for teaching welding at every level. Developed by 35 of the industry’s top welding instructors, U/LINC contains more than 18,000 pages of curriculum resources connecting welding theory, practice and knowledge in one place. Subscribers to U/LINC can easily search, download and print out lesson plans, class assignments, presentations, group-based activities and more with in-depth directions, tips and teaching strategies that leverage Lincoln Electric’s more than 100 years of welding training experience.

“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,” said Jeannine Kunz, vice president of Tooling U-SME. “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.”

Plans call for U/LINC to migrate 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 on U/LINC, visit education.lincolnelectric.com/ulinc.

About Lincoln Electric

Lincoln Electric is the world leader in the design, development and manufacture of arc welding products, robotic arc welding systems, plasma and oxy-fuel cutting equipment and has a leading global position in the brazing and soldering alloys market. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Lincoln has 60 manufacturing locations, including operations and joint ventures in 19 countries and a worldwide network of distributors and sales offices covering more than 160 countries. For more information about Lincoln Electric and its products and services, visit the Company's website at www.lincolnelectric.com.

About Tooling U-SME

Tooling U-SME delivers versatile, competency-based learning and development solutions to the manufacturing community, working with thousands of companies, including more than half of all Fortune 500^® manufacturers, as well as 600 educational institutions across the country. Tooling U-SME partners with customers to build high performers who help their companies drive quality, productivity, innovation, and employee satisfaction. A division of SME, an organization that connects people to manufacturing solutions, Tooling U-SME can be found at toolingu.com or on Facebook (facebook.com/toolingu), Twitter (twitter.com/toolingu), and LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/toolingu-sme).