Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1330321
JANUARY 2021 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 43 Lambert: Wow. That's a tough question. One of the ways that I'm involved, and I think that's one of my functions, is to work with the cus- tomers. I'm on the board at the University of Massachusetts for the advisory committee for the mechanical engineering programs. I'm also on the board of the local vocational school. One of the questions that always crops up is, "How do we teach the kids coming out of school and the students coming out of college? What are they going to need to know so when they go to work for those types of companies— be it government contractors, general assem- bly houses or electronic manufacturing facil- ities—to be valuable employees as they walk in?" This is something the educational facili- ties must keep asking. There's a lot of information that is not be- ing taught to these students. They come out of college knowing the theory about electronics, mechanical measurements and things like that, but how do they put all of that together? They should also have a background in design crite- rion so they can design these electronic prod- ucts. What makes it go? How do you figure all that out? Therefore, it becomes a problem be- cause these courses are not offered in many colleges. For example, local companies are hir- ing electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, industrial engineers, material scientists, etc. This protects their future, however they have to work on existing processes while also develop- ing the next generation of products, so where do they get this training and knowledge need- ed for their growth? For example, materials is a great degree to pick up in college because there are so many things going on with the materi- als development and usage. Are we going to play with plastics? What kind of alloys are we going to use? How about composite materials? In a business like ours, we need to be involved in that knowledge development. We bring that knowledge to our instructors and offer them the opportunity to pick up the information on how the new materials are coming about. But students coming out of college today will be working on products that probably haven't even been created or developed yet. So, we deal with what exists and how to put it togeth- er. Question being asked by all the educational facilities I'm involved with are, "What do we need to teach students so they will be valuable employees? How do we get the students up to that point?" Then, once they're hired, how do you keep them employable? What enticements will be necessary to keep them working for your company, i.e., retention? Because employ- ees often work in teams, we need to be aware of the different philosophies and work ethics of different generations so they'll be successful at their jobs and life environments. We need to ask, "What do we need to do to accommodate those various work ethics and how can the in- dustry get them to work together?" How do you develop the training, ethics and work habits so that when people start work- ing for these companies they stay around? The enticements to keep them, the programs and amenities that you offer them—this is all something that they're working on in schools. When I was in school, it seemed like all the engineers were introverts, but now, because they work in teams, they have to be extrovert- ed. As a matter of fact, I'm doing some work now to review curriculum changes—develop- ing teams so they're handling various parts of the projects. Hopefully, perhaps a compa- ny will hire four or five students out of a uni- versity so they're working as a team. Or may- be they'll select the same disciplines from dif- ferent schools so that they can work together and interface; but that's more of an extrovert- ed type of thing. When you look at the profes- sors trying to work this out, and the people in the industry trying to help them, that is diffi- cult but it's what we're facing today. Johnson: How do you train them for today, and at the same time train them in a way that's go- ing to have a shelf life they can use for a while? Lambert: Exactly. Johnson: You said you're on the board of a technical school? Lambert: Yes, the Greater Lowell Technical High School.