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62 SMT Magazine • August 2016 foundation built on Alder's three columns, it is a natural extension to continue the process in the learning for learning area through the Great Books program [2] and other humanities-based courses. However, in the world of high-tech product design and assembly and other professions, this is not enough. For most of the 20 th century, what we did in the electronic product assembly busi- ness was considered a trade to be taught in a trade school. Soldering, for example—a trade skill. A process for assembling a circuit board— a trade skill, community college stuff at best. Production engineering, okay, but why all the math? Even time and motion studies—do they really warrant calculus and differential equa- tions? SMT started to change this in the early '80s. Global competition and the need to reduce la- bor content through automation, micron-level pitches for direct die attach, nano-technology, meta-process control [3] , solder paste and clean- ing chemistries, and many other advancements have all created a level of complexity that re- quires the attention of personnel that have an engineering level education. Although I think paideia is essential as an educational foundation, in today's world it does not provide enough learning for earning. Mortimer Adler believed that a student's prepa- ration for earning a living is not the primary objective of educational process. I suggest we now need to think beyond paideia. Why? Paid- eia provides the skills of how to learn, exposure to the great ideas found in the humanities, and basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. The complexities of our technological world and global marketplace now demand the devel- opment of specific, saleable skills as part of the student-customer's educational process—it is in their best interest. The template for teaching these skills must be based in the real world. It used to be that a company would hire a person with a good liberal higher education who had majored in one of the engineering disciplines: electrical, mechanical, or indus- trial. Then, invested in bringing the new hire up a two-year or more learning curve to teach the employee what they really needed them to know to be successful at their job—the learning curve essentially being the real world experi- ence the entry level person received. We can't afford this anymore. Once you accept this thesis, then the ques- tion becomes what the most efficient and effec- tive way to provide the learning for earning in an academic setting is. My proposed solution is Concurrent Education—more on this next month. Hey, what do YOU say? I'd like to hear your thoughts. SMT Next Month: The Child is Father to the Man— Turning the Relationship Between the Electronic Product Assembly Employer and Recent Graduates Upside Down References 1. The Paideia Proposal – An Educational Man- ifesto, by Mortimer J. Adler, 1982, Macmillan Publishing 2. Great Ideas from Great Books, by Mortimer Adler, 1969, Pocket Books 3. Reducing Labor Content as a Strategy to Im- prove Competitiveness – An Analysis that Addresses the Value of Designing for Automation and an Em- pirical Analysis that Exploits the Automation Using META Process Control, by Tom Borkes and Law- rence Groves, Trans-Tec Yamaha, First presented at SMTA International, Chicago, IL, September 30, 2015 Tom Borkes is the founder of The Jefferson Project and the forthcom- ing Jefferson Institute of Technology. To reach Borkes, click here. MOVING BEYOND PAIDEIA: LEARNING FOR EARNING " A process for assembling a circuit board—a trade skill, com- munity college stuff at best. "