Electronics Manufacturing Education by UTechtic

This is an example of a stencil used for stencil printing solder paste onto a printed circuit board (PCB). It is a visual representation of the answer to Objective 3 of the last post about surface mount PCB assemblies (SMT-PCB).

Education, by its nature, is a progression whose finer structure becomes fragmented.
Most of us are familiar with the grosser linear progressions of grade levels.
One example starts with elementary school, then middle school, and ends with high school.
Schools, in turn, may be broken down into smaller units.
We can segment elementary, middle, and high schools into first through twelfth grades.
Likewise, each grade may be broken into classes: and so on.
These sectional divisions eventually become fragmented in that they need not be linear.
Each fragment may become particular to a learner, their environment, and their teaching.
From this progression of fragmentation, we may reach the following conclusion.
Within the constraints of budgets, time, and personnel,
educational units should be as atomic and individualized as possible.
The question then becomes; how do we achieve that standard at the lowest possible cost,
in the least amount of time, with the resources and personnel available?
That is the question.

Our industry, electronics contract manufacturing, is faced with a draining pool of labor.
Experience is seeping out, and an inexperienced workforce is trying to hold the level.
It's a very good thing that manufacturing is attracting people to the industry:
Most of these are younger folk, though not all.
If we're to continue to grow as an industry, and we will,
and also increase productivity, there's the rub,
then we'll have to teach and train these new ones.
Those of us who have enough under the belt, should start by listening first.
No other way to know what we're dealing with, and we need to know.
Then take them, by the hand if necessary, and give them experiences that will
light them up and make them curious and hungry for more.
Then, and only then, in my humble opinion, can you train them.