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78 The PCB Magazine • May 2017 our licensed training centers that are delivering the training, and through this network IPC has been able to spread the word and knowledge of IPC standards globally. At the industry's request, we have built pro- grams on IPC-A-610, our assembly standard, IPC-A-620 for wire harness, and IPC-A-600, which is the printed circuit board acceptabili- ty document. We have a certification program for designers. And most recently, since you ex- pressed interest on the PCB side, for IPC-6012, our printed circuit board standard. And not to leave out rework and repair, we have a train- ing and certification program for IPC-7711/21. IPC's goal is to be responsive to our members and supportive of the industry. If the indus- try says they're interested in new program, IPC seeks ways to try and deliver a helpful offering. While the IPC certifications have been in exis- tence for over two decades, it is important to continually refresh the content—not just when the standards get revised but also to take advan- tage of technology. The certification programs are instructor-led, but we moved the testing to online. Online testing allowed us to random- ize questions and answers, which provided ad- ditional integrity and it allowed us to more eas- ily gather data on the responses. We're work- ing right now to do psychometric analysis on the questions which will better ensure training has been effective and knowledge transferred. We're going to be doing more question writing this year to increase the question pool and help keep the testing fresh. I guess the most exciting thing to talk about would be IPC EDGE, which was launched in July of 2016. IPC EDGE gives us the ability to blend live presentations with online learning, or completely online offerings. This gives us the ability to reach people 24/7 globally, and will help us spread the industry knowledge to the next generation. To date we've rolled out a cou- ple of programs in the EDGE launch. Almost as long as I've been with IPC, we've done worker-level training using multimedia, starting with ¾-inch videotapes to VHS to DVD to online streaming, and those are programs that the industry has used successfully for many years. We've taken those and put this content into EDGE so that people can access this library 24/7, at their convenience. We see companies using collections of these to achieve their inter- nal training goals. I think it's a less expensive way to be able to put on a class. This year will be focused on a needs assessment from the in- dustry and building a roadmap of offerings to address these needs. Because if you start brain- storming on all the things that we could put on IPC EDGE, the list is long and we have to pri- oritize. Goldman: One thing that I've noticed about EDGE is, of course, that it's all geared toward electron- ic manufacturing, as opposed to printed circuit board manufacturing. There isn't one thing there for PCB fabricators to use. But Kris, go ahead and maybe we can also discuss plans for the future for the circuit board half of things. Kris Roberson: As Dave was saying, and as you've mentioned, one of the trends that we've seen is the graying of the industry, and part of the upcoming generation—my kids, and even into grandkids and such—they are strongly online geared and very much digital learners. We had a INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE—PREPARING THE NEXT GENERATION Dave Bergman