To attract students of any age to learn, enjoy and benefit from our PCB Design courses, and to aid the Electronics industry, by maintaining and improving the quality and quantity of Printed Circuit Board Designers in the UK, and afar.
We believe passionately that courses delivered personally in an intimate training environment, with real HANDS ON practical experience, exceeds results when compared with tutorial courses.
Our students will leave us confident and better skilled Designers – better grounded, ready, willing and now able to tackle their PCB Designing futures.
Why create a PCB Design School you might ask?
Twenty years ago, the Chairman of the IPC (UK) once told me. “In 10 years, 50% of today's PCB Designers will have either retired or died”. I heard the same thing ten years ago.
I have always kept an eye on the PCB jobs market and noticed how many PCB Design vacancies seemed to stay vacant and for a considerable amount of time. One job I remember was advertised for 4 years. It went from Permanent to Contract to Permanent and back again but, obviously, it wasn't being filled. That draws you to several conclusions, the first one of course is - were they paying the correct level of remuneration? They certainly were not, but I noticed that climb by over £10,000 in those 4 years, much to the annoyance of the Recruitment agency, and client, I bet. It still did not get filled so maybe it was just a rubbish job, but I had found out who the Company was so that sounded unlikely. Was it just the lack of available PCB Designers in that area, or a lack of PCB Designers Nationwide or even Worldwide? Sadly, it now seems to be that the latter is true.
I have also noticed that lots of today's adverts for Electronic Engineer roles now stipulate they require PCB Design skills - “JACK OF ALL TRADES” comes to mind. Graduate Students are also being tasked with this role. I see promises of training being offered as part of their package - but I must ask by whom, and to what quality?
Every single Electronic Product has at least one bespoke PCB Design within it. The world is not going to be designing any fewer electronic products. In the future, they will be designing more and more.
There has never been a better time to become a PCB Designer
The salary level is now very much approaching, or on par with, Electronic Designers much to their annoyance - “sorry guys”.
Where are these Designers going to come from? Universities will always play their part. I was personally trained by PCB Designers at Marconi Communications. In return, I trained PCB Designers at the BBC Designs Department, Autoroute Circuits Limited and later at other companies but most of these Companies and Corporations no longer exist. The UK Industry has turned to Overseas Designers (with mixed results), or UK Graduates and even willing Electronic Engineers, but with time constraints and modern-day design complexities it is becoming almost impossible to acquire the skills necessary for today's designs. But this is a skill, and a learnable skill at that.
“Let us teach you we really want to”
Our courses are presented by dedicated, experienced real PCB Designers that will give you the guidance and teach you the skills which will give you the confidence to design, not just for today but for the challenges of tomorrow's electronic products.
So instead of the question Why, the question surely is Why not?
Roger Benfield CID (Senior Lecturer)
