I picked up several older machine tools from a local tech school that was in the process of changing their focus to newer tech as well. Pennies on the dollar.
Knowing that the old iron is not generally found in industry today, I am in agreement that this change is necessary for training young people entering the workforce.
Well, our job shop has the opposite problem — very large CNC mills and lathes. The kids coming out of technical programs only know the new stuff.
What we really need is basic machine setup techniques, not programming skills. The new guys aren’t going to be writing their own programs until they prove that they can take a print and a program and return a finished part.
In German machinist vocational education programs years ago, a new student would get a vise, a file, a bottle of filing oil, and a piece of metal, that would be his whole Focus for the first year.
It makes more sense to teach CNC programming than it does cutting threads on a manual lathe, especially at the post-high school level.