If you build it, will they come?

Pierson has high hopes for a new certification program in development from Technology Resource Network International (TRNI) and the Electronics Technicians Association, International (ETA). When complete, the General Communications Technician (GCT) certification program will offer three levels of certification—from system basics to more intricate skills.

“The GCT has been in development for three or four years. We just completed the Level 2 program and will now begin working with the Department of Homeland Security to create Level 3,” said David Weaver who coordinates Research & Test Development with ETA. According to Weaver, the program offers more depth than other ETA programs and was the brainchild of industry veteran Ira Wiesenfeld.

Throughout his almost 50 years in the wireless industry, Wiesenfeld noticed that few people coming to work in the industry had the educational background needed to succeed. “The people in this industry are smart, but they are not exposed to the basics,” he said.

Wiesenfeld realized that the industry needed a program that provided a hands-on curriculum, oriented around the tasks that technicians encounter every day. And the GCT was born. The GCT builds from the foundations in Level 1 to learning how to apply that information in Level 2 to learning how to design systems in emergency situations in Level 3, which will be the last of the certification programs.

“Before this, there was no single place to get a comprehensive education on the industry,” said Wiesenfeld. “In the old days, the technologies that we used in emergencies were limited. Now, techs are expected to understand it all—from pagers to cell phones to LMR. The GCT addresses all the technologies that a tech might be expected to know in communications emergencies.”

To keep the certification, one must take an update of the course every four years. “As technology moves forward, we wanted to make sure that technicians move with it,” said Wiesenfeld.

Pierson has a guarded optimism about the success of the GCT. “If the industry will get behind this, it will go a long way to creating a common ground,” said Pierson. “No school is offering a program that produces a wireless technician. Schools are having a hard enough time getting students interested in and exposed to electronics! Techs are aging. The more experienced technicians are in their 50s or older. When they retire, what will we do?”