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February 28, 2009
Singapore Workshop, May 11-14, 2009
A four day PBET Workshop will be conducted in Singapore during May 11-14, but the registration deadline is April 8. This deadline is necessary in order to verify there are enough participants to justify the Workshop. So check with your colleagues and managers NOW! The last PBET Workshop in Asia was in May of 2008. This will likely be the only PBET Workshop in Asia during 2009. Take advantage of the “Recession-Proofing Fee Rollback” (discount). Find the cost and register by clicking on this link!
California (Bay Area) Workshop, June 9-12, 2009
A four day PBET Workshop will be conducted in the Bay Area during June 9-12, but the registration deadline is May 8. This deadline is necessary in order to verify there are enough participants to justify the Workshop. So check with your colleagues and managers NOW! This will likely be the only PBET Workshop on the West Coast during 2009. (The last open-enrollment PBET Workshop in California was in December of 2007.) Take advantage of the “Recession-Proofing Fee Rollback” (discount). Find the cost and register by clicking on this link!
Up to a 17% Recession-Proofing Workshop Fee Roll-Back
These “Roll-Backs” are explained on the Schedule and Registration Form page on the PBET website (mr-pbet.com). Look for “FEES” and the recession-proofing umbrella graphic, and click the link there. Workshops are now posted for Boston (North Shore), California (Bay Area), and Singapore.
Whatever happened to TPIC?
The short answer is that it was officially dissolved during the fall of 2008 by its Board of Directors with the intention of establishing a new professional association of technical trainers in high tech industries. However, the current recession, as it gathered momentum throughout 2008, forced the individuals on the Board of Directors to focus on more pressing matters in their own companies. As it stands, there is no TPIC. There is no replacement group. And activity on initiating a new group has reportedly drifted down to zero.
TPIC was born as the Technician Training Council (TTC) in 1992 under the auspices of SEMATECH and its then partner SEMI-SEMATECH. The Council (Board of Directors) was made up of representatives from several chip manufacturers, equipment suppliers, and SEMATECH. The focus was a three day annual conference which consisted of presentations on non-proprietary, exemplary training ideas and activities. The conference also initiated task forces that looked at a variety of topics like “Instructor Guidelines” and “Training Evaluation Guidelines.”Subsequent conferences considered the reports and adopted “Guidelines.”
At some point in the late 1990s, the organization adopted a new name, the Technician Performance Improvement Council (TPIC), reflecting the idea that training was but one of a variety of performance interventions. The name change reflected the reality that actually existed from the beginning: the TTC had already introduced guest speakers, presenters, and task forces on interventions like “Documentation,” “Electronic Performance Support Systems,” “Knowledge Management.”
By 2002, the sponsorship of TPIC had shifted from primarily that of SEMATECH to primarily that of SEMI. In the late summer of 2003, SEMI withdrew its funding. Existing leaders in the TPIC organization scrambled to come up with a new funding formula that would allow TPIC to continue its work. The result was an ambitious plan that included the employment of a part time Director. There were two types of membership, but one source of funding: corporate memberships (about $1500 per year) and individual memberships (free, in conjunction with a membership in the American Society for Training and Development - ASTD). It was a hard sell and corporate memberships were few. There was not enough money for the most basic expenses, never-mind for its part time Director.
The TTC began as a fully funded program (from SEMATECH) to which participants paid nothing but related travel expenses. Participation declined when in later years TPIC charged a conference fee. By 2006, participation was steadily dropping. There will always be a difference of opinions about why this was true. Among the contributing views: (a) Board members largely depended on the actions of a paid Director while there was little money by which to pay him, (b) Getting corporations to join and pay the fee was impossible given the economic conditions, the nebulous name of “TPIC,” lack of effective marketing, and/or an industry less prone to cooperative actions (compared to the late 1980s), (c) Participants had different visions of how the organization should evolve which resulted in less focused marketing, less passion for the group, more time lost, and/or (d) Task force activity related to performance improvement had begun to shift from TPIC sponsored groups to SEMI Standards sponsored groups causing further dilution of focus for TPIC. In the end, as was stated at the opening, the gathering recession of 2008 caused the few remaining advocates for TPIC (and a new replacement organization) to abandon all activity to focus fully on the concerns of their own company.
TPIC made invaluable contributions to the semiconductor industry. The original task forces established the essential PBET characteristics which were embodied in the PBET Workshop, created by Julian Serda in 1994 at SEMATECH. In turn, all companies in the industry have benefited as Intel leveraged the Workshop as a way to improve training with its vendors. Beyond “PBET,” there were many other areas where participants learned new ideas for training or other aspects of technical support that brought overall improvements to the industry. On a personal level, many of us benefited from the networking afforded by work on task forces, attendance at the annual conferences, and later on, through site visits to various corporate training centers.
TPIC also was a major contributor to national improvements in semiconductor manufacturing technician skills through collaborations with community college instructors, and later, through collaboration with MATEC.
Over the years, there were a number of products: task force reports, adopted Guidelines, and stellar presentations. None of these things are available any longer through the abandoned TPIC website. However, I have some of these materials and will be posting them in an online archive, available to all.
Although other wonderful organizations exist, like the ASTD and the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), these groups give only a very small degree of attention to high tech equipment training. You, the equipment trainer, must sift out what is relevant from presentations on sales training, software training, management training, and other concerns. I will miss those wonderful presentations in TPIC meetings gone by that actually demonstrated manufacturing equipment simulations, field service technical support systems, and other specific examples needed by equipment trainers. I look forward to working with anyone who wants to band together again to promote excellence in equipment training.
How to Stay Connected
Over the years of teaching the PBET Workshop, I have met over 1600 fantastic people from this industry. Yet today, I find it difficult to contact very many of them. People leave the places they have been working for many reasons: in the past- a better job offer; today- the recession. Yet typically, all I have in my address book are company email addresses and company phone numbers. Not only are people no longer at the companies where I first met them, many are no longer in the semiconductor industry at all.
Why keep in touch? I mean, sure, there are obvious social reasons. But there are also powerful professional reasons. Most often, people find new jobs because of someone they know. In a new company, or even in a new industry, the people you remain connected with may have important advice, resource suggestions, or other help for you in your new position. The reasons for networking are virtually endless.
TPIC was another way to keep in touch with at least a smaller number of my colleagues in the semiconductor industry. That opportunity has faded away. But not before I learned one more valuable resource. Last year, several of the remaining TPIC members suggested setting up a profile on LinkedIn, the business networking site. I did so, but have only more recently realized its value. Beyond setting up your profile in an attractive way, one of the many actions you can take there is to join some of the many industry groups, college and military groups, or social groups. Participation in those groups may help make you aware of yet other opportunities, even as you share your own wisdom.
I now urge you and everyone I meet to set up a profile on LinkedIn and maintain it. Fill it in with as much value as you can so that others will see what you can offer them. Keep it current. Establish connections with colleagues, customers, vendors, professors and others. In short, don’t lose track of those who can be part of your network.
And once you have set up a profile at LinkedIn, LinkedIn, I would be happy to connect with you! Also, if you attended the PBET Workshop at any time since it was first offered in 1994, and you have a profile on LinkedIn, you are invited to join the “PBET Workshop Alumni” group I started there about 2 months ago. Just do a site “Search Groups” search with the word “PBET.” I don’t know about you, but if I was looking for a trainer, I would be looking for one that is PBET certified. We have all heard: All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business (jobs, contracts, and/or customers) to, those people they know, like, and trust. Although LinkedIn does provide a few minor opportunities for people to “know, like, and trust” you more, that is not the chief benefit. It is rather allowing those people who already “know, like, and trust” you to find you.
Let’s all keep in touch with one another!
Another Way to Stay Connected
I would like to introduce you to my new blog called The Recession Proof Trainer located on the web at http://semicon-recession.com. I hope you find it a useful resource as time moves forward. If you are aware of news that the high tech trainer community can use, please let me know so that I can post it and distribute it. You may want to sign up for the Newsletter there or RSS the feed for the blog. I will be using that site as a place to archive the PBET Newsletters - like this one.
