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JULY 2024 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 41 example, the Manufacturing Institute's 2020 survey on engagement and retention reports that "employees who feel valued are more than four times as likely to report high levels of work engagement (59% vs. 13%) and less likely to say they feel stressed out on a typical workday (16% vs. 66%) or that they plan to leave the company within the next year (2% vs. 12%)." 3 IPC certification may be a contractual obligation if you're involved in producing high-reliability Class 3 products. However, it's important to review your manufacturing services agreement and vendor qualification documents to assess your credentialing requirements accurately. Organizations that work to industry-specific quality management standards (QMS) must ensure the competency of their employees, but they usually have options regarding how that training is provided and how the attainment of the required knowledge and skills is documented. In his article on training and competency requirements for medical equipment providers working to ISO 13485, biomedical engineer and medical device guru Tim Rish notes that "competency can be gained through education, certification, skills development, and experience [as long as] it results in the competency of personnel to perform the necessary job functions specific to their roles." 4 Similarly, Section 7.2 of the widely adopted AS9100 QMS standard for the aerospace industry states, "Employees must be competent in the work they are assigned to perform based on education, training, or experience. If they are found not competent, Figure 1: Certificate vs. certification.