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REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2019 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE I I-CONNECT007 39 technologies, and professional development— and to get them to see firsthand that there are a wide range of career opportunities for them to consider and pursue. We had two career panel discussions with representatives from both large- and medium-sized industry leaders including Panasonic, Weller Apex Tools, Calu- met, Nordson, and Mycronic as well as IPC's emerging engineers speak about their experi- ences and what it took for them to get to where they are today. The emerging workforce lacks essential industry skills. Over 66% of IPC members have difficulty hiring operators, and 64% of IPC members have difficulty hiring engineers. There is an urgency to collaboratively solve this industry-wide problem that is predicted to grow worse in the decades ahead. IPC and the IPC Education Foundation are uniquely posi- tioned to be part of the solution. I'm a believer in the "see, think, do" model, and that's really what this opportunity offers students. The students go through a soldering training experience with industry experts. In addition, they walked the trade show floor with hundreds of exhibitors where they toured IPC member booths. Then, they saw the Connected Factory Exchange (CFX) line, which demonstrates the intersection between digital technology and manufacturing. Each school was also given a $1,000 scholarship. The opportu- nity to bring these students here was just incredible. In addition, John Mitchell, president and CEO of IPC, offi- cially announced the launch of the IPC Edu- cation Foundation. Further, this day [January 31] has been proclaimed IPC Education Day by Representative Scott Peters from the 52 nd con- gressional district of California, which covers the coastal and central portions of the city of San Diego as well as the suburbs of Poway and Coronado. Cesar Solis from the Congressman's district office also attended the morning break- fast and welcome session. There are a lot of great things happening. We are very excited about the progress we've made and the direction we are headed includ- ing working with high school districts across the country to integrate IPC's training materials and resources and industry credentials into high school curricula. While here, we met with sev - eral career technical education (CTE) instruc- tors to discuss a pilot program later this year. Goldman: Where are the teachers from? Buscemi: They're from San Diego high schools. Goldman: Okay. And are you also working on this program with colleges?