Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1464867
APRIL 2022 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 17 Matties: Yes, if you're not there facilitating and inspiring and motivating your people to do it, they'll do it on their own to just to get a new job. Happy Holden: I'm thinking of three or four senior executives in this industry who worked for me. We once thought, "Where are they going to be? ey've really got the capability," not of where they will go next, but where they will go aer that; they're now senior execu- tives in this industry. Matties: Are you seeing formalized training programs on the rise, or are companies just too busy to even stop and think about it; they're just firefighting, so to speak? Hernandez: It depends on whether you're look- ing at organizations that are trying to do this internally on their own or if they're working with IPC to do this. Some companies have great internal training programs. ey've invested a lot of time and money to develop well-defined training programs, with great resources for their people internally, but that's not the norm. Oentimes, these are training programs that are developed because there's an absolute need, so you develop it, but really, you're just putting on a Band-Aid. Matties: Now, you have a training program in the box, so to speak, that they can bring into their facility, open and get started straight away? Hernandez: at's the idea. We're still getting the word out about this. We started launch- ing these programs about 18 months ago, and one of the reasons why we didn't make a huge, overwhelming splash is that I'm a firm believer in having proof that something works before you start promoting it at that level. Why? Because education is filled with snake oil salesmen. It's created a terrible reputation for workforce training. You oen hear, "is is the solution for your problems; all you have to do is pay us money and all your problems go away." It's a common aspect of for-profit edu- cation and unfortunately that's become very common here in the United States. It's oen what you hear in for-profit educa- tion centers, so I'm very sensitive to that. We wanted to build an industry program, not an IPC program. For instance, when we built the entry-level assembly operator program, we worked with more than 100 different organiza- tions from around the world. We did not build the program ourselves. It's an industry pro- gram. is is not an IPC program; we just help facilitate it. It's very much like a standard. We don't write the standards; we just help facilitate. We didn't decide what went into the program, or the depth at which we teach this material. e industry decided that. All we did was use our educational development experts internally to decide on the most efficient and effective way to teach what the industry wants to teach. We validate that the student is walking away with the highest level of retention possible. Matties: What is that teaching methodology? Is it online with coursework at home, or is it in the factory? Hernandez: It depends on the program. Our design programs, for example, are project- based curriculum programs. You meet with a live instructor and have discussions a couple times a week, then you take what you learn in those discussions and apply it to a project. Every week you have a project that you need to complete with the knowledge that you're gaining, so you're applying it immediately aer you learn it. en you build on the knowledge from the previous week for more complex projects. In the meantime, you're gaining feedback from the instructor. If you have questions or you don't know how to do something, the instructor is there to help you. Why? Because