Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1464867
16 PCB007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2022 us solve this problem here and implementing it in turn." ey can implement that, and it gets them 90% of the way there. ey then take that last 10% and say, "Take everything you learned, and we're going to talk about how we apply it here internally." Now I've cut down the time that I must invest into this person by 90% and I can focus on that last 10% that really has to do with how we do things. Johnson: Dave, if 80% of the attendees are com- ing from employer assignment referral rather than volunteering, what do you think that per- centage should be? Hernandez: What should it be? I like to think it should be closer to 50/50. Matties: But if employees are taking on this train- ing themselves, they're either doing it because they're going to switch jobs or their employer says, "at skill set is of value. We'll pay you more if you have it." But what's the motivation beyond that for employees to jump in on their own? Hernandez: It goes back to the type of person you're hiring. If you're hiring someone who is inherently curious and wants to grow, they'll take it upon themselves to get that training, but you're not going to benefit from it as an orga- nization because they will take that skill set somewhere else. Matties: How do we get this to be self-empow- ered, or self-incentivized by the company, and done at the pace of the employee on their own time? Hernandez: You have to match the skills to the opportunities. Today we discussed the four pillars of the workforce challenges that we face today: the pipeline of talent, the onboarding, the career pathways, and the upskilling. ey occur at each of the levels—engineering, oper- ator, and executive. We have onboarding pro- grams for operators, engineers, and designers. We have upskilling programs for engineers and designers. We have new programs coming out for inspectors later this year. It's a growing cat- alog of tools that we're providing the industry to solve whatever internal problems they have, based on what their needs are. Johnson: How many of these are students join- ing the training who have referred themselves on their own initiative vs. being sent by an employer? Hernandez: Most of it is coming from employ- ers. I don't have a percentage, but I would not be uncomfortable saying more than 80%. It's driven by the employers right now. is is an employer seeing something, or someone on another team saying, "Hey, we can use this skill set here. We can use this training to help