IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
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IPC COMMUNITY 41 SUMMER 2024 practice guides. The competitions are fun, but for the companies that enter, it is a serious game and a good tool for human resources. It promotes team emulation, participant selection, and sup- port during competition. Obviously, it is also an opportunity for them to show their skills." Most importantly, though, it's an opportunity to show that electronics are still manufactured in France and in Europe. "The general public believes that all electronics are produced in Asia, and this is absolutely false," Pierre-Jean says. "IFTEC supports the manufacture of electronics in France; therefore, it's important to be involved in hand-soldering competitions. Serving as com- petition judges gives us a positive image and solidifies our relationship with our customers." Pragmatism in Pedagogy IFTEC bases its success on its pragmatic approach to training. "We work for the engi- neers, technicians, and operators employed by the industrial companies dealing in all fields that use electronic boards," Pierre-Jean says. "We provide practical training with hands-on exper- iments and exercises in our workshops. For each topic, we explain the how, what, and why, and our trainers make sure to answer every question asked during a training session, which is why we limit the number of participants per training to five to 10, depending on the session topic." Equipment is essential to training, and workshops are equipped with wave soldering machines, selective soldering machines (Sasinno), reflow ovens (SMT), semi-automatic screen print- ing machines (Ekra), pick-and-place equipment (Essemtec), BGA repair machines (Ersa, Metcal), a wide range of hand soldering irons (Ersa, Hakko, JBC, Metcal, OKI, Pace, Weller), microscopes, and solder paste inspection tools (ASC). More than half the training IFTEC provides occurs onsite at a client's facility, and almost all in-person training takes less than a week—from 14 to 35 hours. IFTEC developed some online train- ing, "but we have found that our industry prefers