Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1454922
106 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2022 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE Greek: I became an IPC trainer in 2014. Our site was requiring several of the IPC CIS pro- grams and our training department needed help transitioning our workforce over to the new training program. I was literally pulled out of the dark, as I was a test techni- cian who worked in a darkroom all day. e IPC certification programs were completely new to me, so I was a bit intimidated. How- ever, I found that teaching the programs that they have set up is fantastic because they are pre-packaged and consistent across the industry. Aer I became a Master IPC Trainer, David Hernandez had contacted me and wanted to hear how things were going and what thoughts I had about the programs. rough those dis- cussions I explained that living in a rural com- munity, many we hire are new to the electron- ics industry. When we would put new hires through the CIS classes, there was an obvious skill gap that we were struggling to bridge with them because the courses are written for engi- neers. I asked David if there was any plan for foundational training that would give those new to the industry a baseline. e IPC team set to work to develop this amazing Work- force Development Training series. We had many calls about what problems we needed to resolve. e whole process was amazing since I had never had a business relationship with a company like that before. Goldman: Have you been attending IPC meetings or committee meet- ings or anything like that? Help- ing to build the program? Greek: I have been involved with a couple of Task Force commit- tees in the past. However, this project evolved through "Voice of the Customer" type meetings with the education department at IPC. Goldman: How have the programs been work- ing out since you've been working with IPC? Greek: I honestly couldn't be happier with the way things turned out. When COVID initially hit, we were not allowed to do class- room training, but I still had people that I had to keep certified. We work in aerospace; you can't have gaps. e workforce training series was in development at the time so I contacted David to see if it could be released early. Since it wasn't quite ready for produc- tion, the team allowed us to start doing the beta testing. We were able to provide feedback to them, to fix some bugs, and things like that. We were the first group to go through once it was in production and all my students loved it. I was worried at first because I was used to being in the classroom with my students and I wasn't sure how much they would retain. When they come in for the in-person skills development portion of their certification, I would tell them a requirement and they would say, "Oh yeah, I saw that in the video." For someone who has never touched a soldering iron in their life, it takes a while to build those skills. Since they've seen it so many times on those videos, it's like they walk in knowing what's going to happen and they can prepare for it mentally. ere's a lot less stress and anxiety with my students. Like I said, they're retaining more and it's just a fantastic program. Goldman: Is most of your certification for assembly? Greek: For the most part, I work with our assembly groups. How- ever, as an MIT, I also certify other trainers and engineers in our net- work. Goldman: I take it that the training materials are then available to your