I am sure that all of you who teach in 2-year AAS degree programs hate to hear this, but it is true whether you care to believe it or not. It has always been true to some degree, but I believe it is even more true today than ever simply because the nature of electronic tech work has changed greatly over the years. You really don't need an AAS degree to be a good electronic tech.
I have seen numerous examples of this during my career both as a tech and later as an engineer. But here are a few stories that have really stuck with me. And, I am not making any of this up.
Some of the best techs I have ever known come from a military training background. All of the services are heavy electronics users so have excellent training facilities. They do a supurb job of preparing technician level people for typical technician work like installation, repair, maintenance, serivcing, etc. No engineer or design related work. I think that because the training is so focused on equipment and repair and related duties like operation, it eliminates a great deal of the unnecessary theory that prevails in AAS degree programs. As an AAS degree graduate myself, I encountered may military trained techs in my work. They were good. They knew the related theory but most of all really understood how to apply it to equipment. I think that is still the case. In my experience the Navy techs were the best, but Air Force and Army techs were also good. No wonder these guys were able to get good jobs as techs once they left the service. Industry really recognizes good training and still does.
It is also still possible for a person to be self taught. Most colleges and university academics look down upon those who can teach themselves, I am sad to say. And most companies don't like to hire people who are "supposedly" self taught. How can that be? Doesn't every idiot know you have to go to school to learn properly?
I have seen many self taught techs. An example is a person who got a ham radio license in their teens and then built on that with experience in building ham gear, kits and other hobby related electronics. This person then probably got entry level jobs in TV repair, or got an FCC commercial license, and so on. There used to be some great home study courses in electronics that such people took to learn the theory, math and other material. (There are still a few of these left such as Atlantic International Institute and Cleveland Institute of Electronics). These persons were also ones likely to legitimize their knowledge by getting certified by ETA-I, ISCET or one of the others. I have met many of these guys and they are good. I believe that these are the REAL techs.
One time I was an engineer working for a computer company in Houston and I was given the job to get two computers ready for shipment. Both had been manufactured (mainframe/mini sized computers) but not checked out and configured as required. I had two techs to help me. One was an AAS degree grad and the other one of these self taught types. I assigned one computer to each and turned them loose. The AAS grad found the manuals and went off to his cube to read them and learn the product. The other guy simply plugged the computer in, turned it on and went to work. As it turns out, this guy got his computer running several days before the other did. Both got the job done, but the way they went about it was quite different. I think the AAS grad could explain the computer better and understood the operation better, but the self taught guy had just as satisfactory end result. He could set it up, troubleshoot and fix it faster too. So guess which tech I took with me to the computer shows with exhibits?
When I was running the education and publishing division at Heathkit, we at one time decided to develop a TV/VCR servicing self study package which we were famous for. I wanted once and for all to find out first just what a person really needs to know about electronics to fix TV sets and VCRs. So we initiated a formal job and task analysis. We interviewed numerous techs, observed them doing the work and spoke with supervisors. We clearly identified all the knowledge and skills needed then worked backwards to pin-point just what electronics knowledge matched up to this requirement. Boy, were we surprised. TV/VCR techs really didn't need to know as much electronics as we thought. Most repairs required more specific knowledge of certain TV models and what commonly failed on them. Many repairs were just board swaps. And VCR repairs seem to be either heads or belts. Very few if any actual electronics problems that required a scope, etc. Bummer.... We actually decided not to do a TV/VCR training package. Most of the knowledge and skills are learned on the job or in manufacturer seminars and workshops.
I also got this same message from my son some time back. After a few years at college he decided to get into the PC repair and networking business. And he was completely self taught by just doing the work. He did go off and study for the A+ exam and passed the first time. He had a job within a week and since then he has done well in this field getting certifications passed by self study and working his way up the ladder. He makes lot more money than I do. I asked him one time what electronics he needed and where he learned it. He said, "Dad, you don't need to know anything about electronics to work on PCs." And since then I have discovered he is right. I suppose it helps to know how some of it works but it is not necessary to get the job done.
A great deal of electronics is like that these days. Techs do not design or analyze and theory is almost irrelevant. Some is good and healthy but it does not to be the deep analytical electronics that community colleges try to teach. If those of you who teach electronics would go out and work as a tech or even observe and interview techs as part of a job and task analysis, you would get the picture. With today's electronics buried in ICs, modules and PC boards, it is rarely necessary to work at the component level. Techs work with systems and are concerned with signal flow not electron flow, and their main knowledge is centered around specs, testing, measuring, and the like. Yet we still don't teach that. Why?
11 comments:
I read Mr. Frenzel's article, "You Don't Have to Have an AAS Degree to be a Great Electronic Technician". As an practicing electrical engineer, educator, and retired Air Force electronic technician, I cry foul! I have to say that he has missed the boat entirely on the reason why electronic technicians, that become dissatisfied with their status quo, go on to study electrical engineering! The majority of electronic technicians believe they can solve every electronic problem placed in front of them with Ohm's Law and a meter. In doing so they are not only narrow minded and short sighted, but also ignorant. The fact of the matter is, "It ain't that simple." Most technicians have learned no more than "basic electronics" and couldn't tell you why capacitive reactance is what it is or why it exists. I see it in my students when they first enter the AAS ET program. On the other hand, if all the technician aspires to in life is to replace fuses and burned out resistors, then he has learned all he needs. He doesn't even need basic arithmetic, much less algebra and trigonometry. If instead he wants to learn to design micro-miniature circuits, that react to anomalies not anticipated in the design, then he's going to have to learn calculus so he will understand Maxwell's Equations and near field effects of electromagnetism and RF! Although, most of my students will not aspire to that level of understanding, I still introduce the subject matter areas in my lectures to my students so that they are at least aware of circuit analysis beyond Ohm's Law and a meter. How can you aspire to more in life and in learning if you've never been subjected to the possibilities. Mr. Frenzel's opinion would have never gotten us past vacuum tube technology and the 1950's. We'd never have placed astronauts in space or designed cellular phone service if his mentality prevailed. If we water down our education and programs we'll never challenge our students to aspire to more than the status quo.
Interesting article. I think Louis is right on in many areas, e.g.,
marketing, esatblishing career pathways, etc., but out in left field in
many others. He's certainly not a design engineer, nor a design
technician. On the basis of some of his comments, he seems to lack the
very "real world" experience necessary to justify his harsh criticism.
It’s unfortunate when you have leadership in AAS EET programs that feel that the programs and educators are imparting concepts and fundamentals above the need of the student, instead of challenging the student to peek his/her interest at a higher level. I’ve never had a student claim that he wasn’t getting his money’s worth from one of my classes. Usually, the student (often a practicing electronics technician) is more interested in getting home to watch the ball game on television, if he wasn’t in fact already watching via the Internet during my lecture. The practicing electronic technician often comes to the AAS degree program with the preconceived notion that he already knows everything there is to know about electronics. This is the notion Mr. Freznel brings to the discussion. With that notion, the practicing electronic technician puts forth the minimum effort to learn something beyond voltage, current, and resistance. I learned an adage, “Aim at nothing and you’ll hit it.” We cannot put forth the minimum effort if we are to challenge this notion. I’m so glad that my engineering professors didn’t take Mr. Freznel’s attitude. I accepted the challenge; the challenge to learn something about electronics above the technician’s level. Electrical engineering is not meant to be a science for electronic technicians. It is a science for those that want to dig deeper and learn WHY electrons flow through a conductor and WHY capacitance reacts differently to an AC signal and WHY triple integrals are used to understand RF propagation. If we, as educators’ water down our lessons and expectations of our students, how can we elevate the possibilities they might achieve. I am continually praised by my students for my style, my passion, and my desire for the students to learn the material; not just pass the course! I have a degree in electronic engineering from a very good university. The program and study was rigorous. I spent nights and weekends pouring over the concepts new to me, trying to understand them at a new level. I wanted to understand, not just accept. That’s the difference in being an engineer and a technician. The AAS EET program needs to challenge the technician's thinking and reason beyond the concepts of basic electronics. The self taught person with an innate interest can only go so far without formal education. The same is true of the electronic technician that learned his/her skill in the military, regardless of the branch. A formal education and the challenge therein raises the bar for the student. To truly become a professional, you must seek the knowledge outside your world of limited experiences. Learn something new or in a new way. Learn WHY! There are many classes for which I never used the information that I learned, but I learned it and have an understanding of the concepts nonetheless. Learning should be an end in and of itself. It’s not a bad thing to wear that accomplishment as a badge of glory. It raises one’s self-esteem and confidence. Saying that an AAS degree is not needed to be a good electronic technician is like saying one doesn’t have to understand the rules of English grammar to be a good writer! We all know the fallacy in that statement. I work for managers and leaders that can’t construct a complete thought, much less write a complete sentence. Constant improvement and striving for knowledge or relearning things previously learned reinforce the consummate professional. The truly GOOD electronic technician should want the AAS EET degree as proof that his/her desire is more than required to just get by.
I think we should just let the trades take care of educating electronic technicians. Just take technician out of the title and just make them all electricians. They don't need to know anything about circuit theory, electromagnetism and motor/generator action, doping and hole-flow, or things like modulation and digital techniques. I mean all they really need to know they learned by the eighth grade in Mr. Gubbers earth science class.
I agree that and AAS degree is not required. As a matter of fact, I use to teach consumer electronics servicing at a community college. My students were ten times the techs that our AAS degree students were because we spent our time in hands on.
The problem was that Texas Instruments and other companies would not give my students a chance because they didn't have the degree.
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