Keeping an Eye on Technology Futures, No Hidden Agendas, New Attitudes, No Platitudes!
In the old days, instrumentation technicians and engineers were not really computer literate. And process engineering skills had to be acquired through a long "apprenticeship" - often years, and even decades. The problem today is that corporate administrators are simply extrapolating those old patterns of employment.
As industry transforms into a high-tech workplace, the new generation of automation engineers and technicians will be completely different. They will have grown up with computer games, the Internet, PDAs and cellphones. Some computer games are more complex than typical control or monitoring systems. By comparison, the software tools and smart equipment in today's control rooms should be a cakewalk.
Sadly, large end-user company policies are still measuring progress by obsolete learning standards. And this is why bright youngsters shun jobs in factories and plants, and go off looking for careers outside the automation business.
The Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society (ISA) is working diligently to develop the image and value of "certified automation professionals". But progress is stymied by lack of recognition of the profession. Here's the key question: will automation professionals be recognized with higher base pay and faster advancement? Without that recognition, certification is worthless.
ISA's challenge is to convince employers of the merits of the CAP program. If there's a big pay differential that comes with CAP certification, engineers will want to achieve that status. Right now, it's just eyewash.
Dick Morley, father of the programmable logic controller (PLC), and co-author of the book, "The Technology Machine - how manufacturing will look in the year 2020", suggests that the remedies require significant social change, a modification of the mind-set.
Young people must "feel" that engineering is significant work. Pay scales must change, to encourage the brightest and best to become engineers and innovators. Manufacturing people must be considered and respected as professionals. Heroes of engineering and manufacturing must be recognized and lauded.
