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Automation Skills Enigma
The automation skills shortage in America mirrors the continuing decline in interest in factory engineering jobs.
Few consider automation engineering an exciting career;
most just drift into it by happenstance.The speed of change
brings a mismatch of skills. Experienced engineers know all
the old things such as instrument selection, tuning
controllers, good wiring practices and safety procedures.
But they are relatively inexpert at new digital skills such
as networking, communications, Web-based information search
and integration, which comes through younger, usually
lower-paid “technicians.”
Automation professionals require knowledge that is
applied across multiple disciplines–electrical, electronic,
mechanical, chemical, instrumentation, controls, computers,
networking and information processing. This mix is simply
not available in any traditional programs today, and lumping
them together into one educational curriculum does not seem
practical.
The International Society of Automation has tried to
define an automation degree course but, to date, has not
found any school or university that is willing to develop an
automation track. There is simply no interest. In my
opinion, unless direct support comes first from end-user
companies who have identified the urgent need and are
clamoring for results, lobbying government officials and
politicians is simply wheel spinning..." Read
more
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Feed Forward Tomorrow's Engineer
Each time I find myself flat on my face, I pick myself up
and get back in the race. --That's Life, Frank
Sinatra
When a subject seems to recur as a topic, it can be
called a “meme” and I think I found one. My reading over the
past month or so complemented my thinking about the topic of
this issue–workforce development and the future worker.
Marketing guru Seth Godin, writing in his blog asks,
”Is
effort a myth?” He thinks people really want to believe
effort is a myth. Godin says we are lucky–lucky to be born
at a time without the black plague or in a country without
freedom. We're lucky to have access to tools and
opportunities. But effort is directly related to success.
“Effort takes many forms. Showing up, certainly.
Knowing stuff. Being kind when it's more fun not to. Paying
forward when there's no hope of tangible reward. Doing
the right thing.” He calls it the paradox of effort:
luck may be more appealing, but you can't choose luck.
“Effort, on the other hand, is totally available, all
the time.”
In a “Fortune” magazine article,
“Why Talent is
Over-rated” (Oct. 27, 2008, p. 138), Geoff Colvin, senior
editor at large, asks, “So if specific, inborn talent
doesn't explain high achievement, what does? Researchers
have converged on an answer. It's something they call
‘deliberate practice,’ but watch out–it isn't what most of
us think of as practice, nor does it boil down to a
simplistic practice-makes-perfect explanation...” Read more
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