Tennessee Valley Authority
CADNet Program
CADNet is a school-to-work program that trains students in computer-assisted drafting while providing low-cost, high-quality services for CADNet sponsor organizations.
The program teaches high school juniors advanced computer skills so they become proficient at producing engineering drawings and documents. As seniors, the students are eligible to move into a CADNet lab and earn wages for their work on materials for business partners. Upon graduation, they are qualified CAD technicians ready to enter the workforce.
Services available through the program include:
- Converting drawings to electronic formats (AutoCAD, Microstation, and MicroCadam)
- Scanning documents (Spicer Imagenation)
- Consulting
- Training in AutoCAD, Mircrosoft products, and scanning
- Printing and reproduction services
- Administrative services.
Since the program began in 1995, participants have completed some major projects, including converting 5,600 manual drawings to AutoCAD format for TRW Toyota of Morristown, Tennessee, and scanning and indexing 750,000 TVA contracts and agreements dating from 1933 to the present. Eighty-eight percent of past participants have obtained jobs or gone on for further education using the skills they learned in the CADNet program.