A brief overview of the scheme to date.

• Autumn 1997 - PTC software offer to UK Government accepted by Minister, no action (Minister moved)
• May 1998 - Sunday Times business section carries major article on the offer
• July 1998 - Desgin and Technology Association commissioned by (then) Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) to evaluate software and put forward strategic plan
• September 1998 - Confidential report submitted to DfEE with fully costed plan (Just under £5 million over 5 years) for all UK schools to have a trained teacher.
• February 1999 - DfEE agree to accept software and offer end of year funding to carry out a pilot (£699,000 on equipment for pilot school focus on using laptops)
• June 1999 - CAD/CAM Pilot launched by Charles Clarke, Minister for School
• June 1999 - Decision to accept PTC's offer made public, with DfEE's commitment to support the programme and challenge to DATA to modernise the curriculum
• June 1999 - Structure of the programme announced
• September 1999 - Accredited trainers programme launched at University of Warwick
• November 1999 - £50,000 training grant awarded by DfEE
• December 1999 - Michael Wills, Minister responsible for ICT, launches ArtCAM software, offered by Delcam
• February 2000 - Agreement reached for student teachers to be trained
• March 2000 - £170,000 DfEE grant for equipment in inner city schools
• May 2000 - Treasury Minister Stephen Timms presents certificate to 1000th teacher
• July 2000 - D&T Association signs two agreement with National Assembly of Wales to train accredited trainers and one teacher in every Welsh secondary school
• September 2000 - New D&T National Curriculum Order published including CAD/CAM
• September 2000 - DfEE grant £200,000 for regional centres, curriculum materials, conferences and project management financial year 2000/2001
• December 2000 - D&T Association given permission to release the software outside the UK (excluding North America)
• March 2001 - Major CAD/CAM conference at University of Warwick. Michael Wills confirms continued DfEE support. £200,000 grant for financial year 2001/2002 to support schools through 25 regional centres, plus management, curriculum materials research and website development
• March 2001 - PTC Mentor Badge launched
• March 2001 - 'Design a CAD/CAM Area' competition launched
• July 2001 - Agreement from Speed Step to release textiles software, subject to satisfactory evaluation
• July 2001 - 4,000th Pro/DESKTOP teacher license released
• July/August 2001 - Evaluation of Speed Step software
• September 2001 - D&T Association Annual Survey reports major shortages of CAD/CAM resources
• February 2002 - Speed Step Accredited Trainers programme begins at Goldsmiths College
• May 2003 - 6000th teacher registered for Pro/DESKTOP software and training
• September 2003 - 400th teacher registered for Speed Step software and training
• October 2003 - Pro/DESKTOP 8 released to accredited teachers via update training, also made available to teachers new to the software
• July 2004 - 7500th teacher registered for Pro/DESKTOP software and training
• May 2005 - 8000th teacher registered for Pro/DESKTOP software and training
• October 2005 - ArtCAM 7 Educational released to accredited teachers via update training, also made available to teachers new to the software
• October 2005 - Small-scale pilot of Pro/ENGINEER software begins
• September/October 2007 - Following evaluation, Pro/ENGINEER Schools Edition accepted into CAD/CAM in Schools programme