Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1535954
The new company has its own training program and employees. I have some guys who have been on staff for 20-30 years, get- ting them trained at the next level of engi- neering. We created our own curriculum on the training for test. There are some good IPC training com- panies out there, but I guess they weren't scratching an itch that some of the cus- tomer base was asking for. DFT is a big area that the industry talks about all the time. Was that one of the areas that worked? Yes. For example, with mechanical tests and interconnecting to a board for a pro- cess test or a parametric test, like a func- tional test, how do you connect to it? One way is with connectors, but how do you get a bed of nails, ICT, or flying probe? With the basic challenges of designing a board and then figuring out a test strategy around it, there are major gaps. When you started The Training Connection, you set out to be a certified IPC training com- pany. What was that process like for you? It's still ongoing as we get different certifica- tions. We're like the baby of the family of the IPC training companies. We're coming in with 45 years of industry experience, but with the training institute, we are creating from the ground up. However, what we learned from The Test Connection wins and losses we're able to apply to The Training Connection, LLC, so that the training company launch has been, I'd say, a lot smoother than you would typically see with a new company starting out. When you're creating a training curriculum, based on your many years in the indus- try, how do you ensure that the programs are aligned and will continue to evolve with industry needs? It comes down to asking your customer, "What keeps you up at night?" Most peo- ple will tell you that it's the school of hard knocks when you're doing an application for someone and they say, "Create a test," and you ask, "What kind of test do you want?" And they just say, "I don't know. You tell me. What do you think?" It becomes a case of the tail wagging the dog. We're trying to arm our customer base with knowledge so they can direct us on their vision, instead of just saying to create a test. We started The Training Connection for DFT and setting up test strategies: What is in the circuit? What is flying probe for? What is boundary scan? These will eventually get into test development practices, and sus- taining types of things. We do have a five- year plan for our curriculum for classes. Since you're developing a curriculum for this IPC-certified training curriculum, does IPC have to sign off on it? How does that process work? The Test Connection curriculum is not sanctioned by IPC, but we are talking to IPC. They only have bare board electrical tests and inspection for bare boards and other assemblies. There aren't any classes in place to tell you to do a certain measure- ment to a specific tolerance that means something with IPC. We're working with IPC to put together a learning curriculum. We just learned about IPC approving an in-system programming program with one of our partners out of Italy, SMH Technologies. Some standards are com- ing into vogue for in-system programming of serial flash on a board. It's on the fringe, so it's coming over to us, and we're hoping IPC will eventually pick up on this as well.