Is electronics training in crisis?

The telecom industry's issues finding properly trained technicians are part of a bigger national problem with the US education system, according to two electronics industry experts. Just as more qualified people are needed in electronics, high schools, junior colleges and private institutions are closing down their electronics training programs for lack of enrollment, according to Teresa Miller, president of ETA International, and Ray Stroud , senior adjunct at Baker University and an electronics trainer.

Stroud believes the lack of qualified electronics technicians threatens the US's ability to retain global leadership in emerging technologies such as mobile broadband and alternative energies. He cites four major areas -- alternative energy, residential electronics systems integration, broadband wireless and RFID – where good technicians are critically needed.

"Those four major markets also happen to be the four major markets for revenue and profits to be made," Stroud said. "All of those markets are not four different markets – all of those things – RFID, mobile wideband, etc. are all merging into one thing. This is what we need to excel in if we are going to reclaim our place in the world. Either we get trained people, we get motivated people, to keep the US in front or we fall further behind. Mobile wideband is going to be the economic engine for our future; it is going to change everything, and we need to be ready for it."

ETA International is a nonprofit trade association for the electronics industry and provides, among other things, 70 different technical certifications for electronics training at about 1000 schools nationwide.  ETA is also part of the National Collation for Electronics Education, Miller said, which is promoting the idea of careers in electronics.

"What we are seeing is that there is a disconnect," Miller said. "We are having calls for technicians more and more just as states are closing the electronics programs that would train these technicians because they don't have students."

As a recent conference in Wisconsin, Miller said, one post-secondary training program head said his "local industry is telling me they are going to need 200 technicians but I only have 20 students, so I can't possibly meet that need."

As demand goes up, Miller said, enrollment at high school and junior college and proprietary schools for electronics is going down.