Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1496178
APRIL 2023 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 47 buy a Winnebago, and that's how he started the company. He outfitted it with soldering stations, and he drove around the Midwest to perform the training. We have done the same since that time and BEST now has an 18-wheeler with the same functionality on board. The BEST training business has changed dramatically. With online training, we have clients as far away as India, Pakistan, and Europe. While some training might be in the middle of the night for us, we don't have to travel halfway around the world, thereby saving the customer money. Is that part of your business still in high demand? It would seem to be, given the need for additional hiring and the staffing dynamics EMS companies are facing right now. Wettermann: We've become an extension of human resources departments for select EMS companies, primarily in the mil-aero and Class 3 environments. In one case, we have a large contract with an EMS company in the military space where our students are brand-new to the company on day one; on day two they get sent through our training vehicle. We see if they show up every day and how they respond to training. Do they have hand-eye coordination skills, and can they grasp some new terms from day zero to day five? We help the client screen who should be kept in the role of a soldering technician. Finding trained individuals to run the machines or engineer the processes— soldering, in our case—is a skill set that is long gone, since the ones who were good at it have mostly retired. It's interesting that you're part of the hiring process. Bring them in on probation, then work them through training to make sure that they can actually do the job. Wettermann: During the last three years, it's been very difficult to find trained personnel, so we hold on to those people. We've taken people from different industries and retrained them. They're great soldering techs; they can solder micro-wires inside of hearing aids, for example, but they've never seen a circuit board. They have the hand-eye skills, the skills for the fine work and the detail, and the patience required. They know the basics of soldering, but we have to teach them what a circuit board is. You have to get creative with respect to hiring, which is a big challenge in our industry. When you asked about what has changed, here's an example: When we used to advertise job openings, we received 30 to 40 responses. You put an ad out now and you're lucky to have anybody call. Why do you think that's the case? Mobile training center.