As of March 2025, the Grande Foundation has rebranded as the Advanced Manufacturing Institute San Diego (AMI-SD) with a new website https://advancedmfginstitutesd.com/
The Grande Foundation Manufacturing Academy takes a holistic approach to ensuring participants’ success. In addition to more than 350 hours of mixed classroom and project based learning, participants work with human resource and program coordinators to hone their job readiness skills which include resume writing, portfolio building, workplace etiquette, and soft skills. Additionally, we conduct barrier mitigation efforts with participants to ensure that outside factors do no inhibit their future employment.
Following the completion of the 17-week training program, graduates are connected with a network of manufacturers for talented employees. We utilize our established relationships to provide technical assistance to employers, enabling them to recruit individuals from more diverse backgrounds and/or under-represented communities.
QCMI Welcomes First Students to Its QCMI Machinist Training Program
James Halladay
James Halladay graduated from Academy Cohort 3 and shortly after graduation received a job offer from QCMI as a machinist. He specializes in the lathe department, specifically on vertical turning lathes (VTL), running high-dollar parts with little to no issues. James has been working for QCMI now for _ years and has held a high Six Sigma rating during his entire time with the company, producing a below-average amount of scrap.
Salit Seng
Salit Seng graduated from Academy Cohort 5 in 2017 and received a job offer from QCMI as a machinist before his final day in the Academy. He too specializes in the lathe department, but on our larger lathes, running roughing operations for all of our 20-30 inch disks. The entirety of the part depends on the roughing operation, and Salit has boasted a 100% success rate on the disks since he has started. Salit has become an integral part of the QCMI team and has shown constant improvement, making him one of the company’s most valuable machinists.
Tim Baxter
Tim Baxter graduated from Academy Cohort 6 and received a job offer from QCMI shortly after graduation date, starting in our CNC mill department. Tim has specialized in our vane production, running 20+ parts at a time. He has since moved to larger scale parts, focusing on our new production parts at the moment. Tim has shown immense improvement and QCMI is confident this will continue.
Grande Foundation 