IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1527867
IPC COMMUNITY 12 FALL 2024 and employee referrals. My main method of con- necting with local high schools and tech schools has been sponsoring local sports programs. That gives us brand recognition among high school students. We also attend job fairs; our local high school has a "trades night," and we set up a booth. We've participated in National Manufacturing Day for the past five or six years, hosting more than 100 students in our facility so they can see what a PCBA environment looks like. They get really excited when they can see a 01005 being placed by a PCBA pick-and-place machine or watch the wave solder selectively solder. I sit on several advisory committees for local tech schools and engineering programs, which allows me to connect with students as they're exiting the program and looking for internships, or even just make suggestions to the curriculum and programs at those local schools. Do your new hires have a background in electronics manufacturing? No. We're in a position to hire people with baseline manufacturing or assembly skills who are outside the industry and bring them up to speed on PCBA. Having the workforce training subscription really helps accelerate that industry knowledge. If I find someone from the cable industry, for example, but what I really need are solder line employees, it's been helpful to enroll them in either the apprenticeship or the workforce train- ing platform to accelerate that specific industry knowledge. Providing a pathway from assembly to quality can also help you make deep connections through the workforce training subscription. How do you implement that training on the shop floor? I work with our management team members to identify and schedule the required training. We have developed training plans, so an assembler arrives at 6 a.m. and spends the first hour in the training cubicle, then returns to the shop floor