Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1153097
28 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2019 Feature Interview by Andy Shaughnessy I-CONNECT007 I recently sat down for an interview with Leo Lambert, VP/technical director for EPTAC Corporation, during the IPC Summer Meetings in Raleigh, North Carolina. We discussed the company's growth, including plans to have training centers across different regions of the country to help cut down on students' travel times, and why training methods must con- stantly evolve to remain effective. Andy Shaughnessy: Leo, what's new at EPTAC? Leo Lambert: We're very busy. The issue hap- pening now is to get instructors located around the country because it costs us a lot to travel. By having instructors in various parts of the country, we eliminate a lot of travel, so it is a big deal for our customers and us. Shaughnessy: Because it is a service industry, more or less. Lambert: Correct. New state government rul- ings on taxation for services rendered are going impact us, and we need to be aware of that impact relative to the total cost of the pro- grams. Secondly, from a training perspective, one of the things that happened at the IPC meetings is the new IPC policies and proce- dures. At EPTAC, we try to follow those to the letter, but there are so many changes that we are questioning the validity of those changes; for example, they are now going to allow peo- ple to change the visual PowerPoint presenta- tions. Individuals were not allowed to change them previously as they were all copyrighted; allowing this to happen automatically chang- es all of the presentations, so the commonal- ity disappears within the same program, which will impact the industry. So, my function is to make sure the instruc- tors don't have four different versions for the same specification. Because if they have modi- fied their presentations, we don't want to hear, "I heard this from instructor A. Now, I have instructor B, but instructor A said this, and in- structor B said that." It becomes a big effort to standardize the presentation and knowledge being disseminated to the students. Another issue is IPC has a philosophical bent while creating the programs to do three things: Leo Lambert on Training the Next Generation of Technologists