UK leads Europe in training PCB designers

Citation

(2000), "UK leads Europe in training PCB designers", Circuit World, Vol. 26 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/cw.2000.21726dab.002

UK leads Europe in training PCB designers

UK leads Europe in training PCB designers

Keywords PCIF, Training

The PCIF-supported PCB designer training and accreditation scheme, delivered as a distance learning programme by Livingston-based Scottish Advanced Manufacturing Centre (SAMC), is the first such scheme in Europe to win US recognition. The formal approval awarded by the USA's prestigious interconnection technology body, IPC, gives the UK a distinct advantage over other European countries when it comes to producing individuals capable of the right-first-time board designs so essential in today's minimal time-to-market environment.

The principal objective of the new PCIF/SAMC training and accreditation programme is to ensure that, when it comes to creating cost-effective, right-first-time designs, individual designers are brought, and kept, "up to speed". Apart from contributing to companies' competitiveness, the programme will also help employers recruiting new designers select the most capable individuals. Furthermore designers themselves will benefit by having an industry-accepted qualification to add to their CVs.

In the USA, a large number of OEMs are making the holding of this certification a condition of employment for PCB designers. Furthermore, professionals in other areas – circuit design, PCB fabrication, quality assurance, CAM – are adding PCB designer certification to their other qualifications since the skills acquired add-to and complement their original speciality. Similar developments are expected to follow here in the UK.

The course is run as a distance learning programme rather than in a classroom environment, and study is undertaken in the students' own time. Participants are encouraged to study in groups rather than alone, with SAMC providing all course material and the services of a readily accessed tutor. The course culminates in a two-day workshop followed by an examination.

The course structure involves two "core" modules covering everything today's PCB designers need to know. In addition, there are complementary "focus" modules which concentrate on particular specialised areas such as hybrid circuits, multichip modules, and the like.

Welcoming the training and accreditation programme, PCIF director Brian Haken pointed out that, useful as CAD systems are, with today's high density circuitry it is the skill of the PCB designer that provides the essential link between packaged silicon and the final product. He said: "Unlike the 'old days' when progressing through first prototype, second prototype, pre-production run, etc., could take several years, the window of opportunity during which a profit can now be made is so small that the design must be right-first-time. The PCIF-supported training and accreditation programme provided by SAMC seeks to ensure that the UK produces PCB designers capable of meeting this demanding requirement. And in this respect, we currently have the edge over the rest of Europe."