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matt2822

Certifications

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I know there are people here that have a good number of years on me and Im hoping you guys can help me out. Is there any certifications that you guys can suggest that may make me more appealing as an employee?

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Nothing beats experience, but you should be able to get some decent training from your local AB vendor. They usually have some day classes to get you some training and atleast be dangerous. Also, you can try to make it to the Rockwell automation fair. They will have lots of classes and seminars on many topics. Lastly if you've got the big bucks or can talk your company into it, you can take classes at Rockwell to be "certified" in their products. Big money from what I understand. Just keep what you're doing, learn from your coworkers and you'll be a hero in no time.

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The three items that pretty much you can show as a certification that I can think of would be college degrees, getting an electrician's license, and getting a professional engineering license. All definitely demonstrate that you learned a certain amount of knowledge, and also that you picked up certain skills, even if it's just learning how to learn material (college degree) and/or stick with a big project for a long period of time. All the "technical" type vendors pass certifications out quite a bit. CEU's are popular because certain certifications (electrician licensing programs in most states as well as professional engineering certifications) require continuing education (CEU's). But I don't think too many people put much value in them as such. One of the problems is that with rare exceptions, certifications show that you have a certain amount of knowledge. It does not show a skill. For instance, if you are a certified EMT, pilot, or hard hat diver, there is a certain amount of skill that goes along with that. But if you show me a certificate from AB for one of their training classes, it just shows that you attended and passed, and probably picked up a certain amount of PLC knowledge. Doesn't say you are a skilled troubleshooter, programmer, installer, or anything else. However, if we're talking about an existing employer, that's another matter. You've got motivation/desire and if you go after areas where you have weaknesses and attend some sort of class on that topic, chances are you are going to get better at it. The certification just shows that you attended the class in most cases (the tests are not usually "hard"). Aside from those mentioned, Ron Beaufort is pretty well known (www.ronbeaufort.com) around this site for PLC training. NTT, Lewellyn, and Trainco are all 3 well known for doing 2-4 day seminar training classes on a variety of topics other than PLC's. I've heard their basic troubleshooting classes are pretty decent. Finally, the pace is much slower than these sorts of "intense" training exercises, but local community colleges and/or technical schools often have related material as well, their costs are relatively reasonable, and they often offer the classes in the evenings. The satellite/"internet based" training is getting more and more popular. One of our electricians said that once he got 2 year degree from a local community college, he can get a full bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at the local university (East Carolina) entirely online/at home. Knowing what an electrical engineering degree involves, outside of the labs, I'd believe it's easily doable, too. Just be careful with this last category. There are some "online universities" which are NOT recognized as accredited programs by some employers. They are treated as "diploma mills" and should be avoided at all costs. I know that at least one online medical program falls under that black cloud. So make sure that you check out their credentials with respect to employers independently of the program before you pay them any money. Your own HR department may be able to help you in that regard.

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I haven't seen add-on certifications with automation sought after much but that may just have been me. The certifications I've seen though that sometimes differenciate people are Microsoft certs if you're dealing with MES/MIS systems or Cisco networking (CCNA) if there's a large ethernet component to the job you're chasing. These can be very role specific though, I doubt I would get these just to be generically more employable.

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Check out ISAs CAP and CCST programs. www.isa.org CAP is for automation personnel, CCST is for Techs Both are being sought out more in the process industries

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Also, to pauleng's post, we have a tech that checked into east carolina. It is a full accredited program BS in engineering technology but is not ABET accredited. Some companies want ABET accreditation as they oversee most engineering and engineering technology programs. I belive Old Dominon College in Virginia has a program that is ABET acredited but requires some labs be done on weekends and some summer week courses. Also, I believe NC State also has a similar BS Engineering Technology program for a BS completion if you have a AS degree in technology aready.

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Hi all, From all that I read on this and other forum's Ron's courses are meant to be top notch. But, is there anywhere online that someone the other side of the pond can get simular training courses. Conor

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The "engineering TECHNOLOGY" part should be a huge hint. All the "technology" degrees are traditionally 2 year associates degrees, essentially a "technician" degree. Same as you'd get a technical school, even if it is taught at a major university. They are scorned by the engineering world, and even the business world. Recently they've been extended to 4 year degrees so where before you'd see a "ASEET" (associates degree in electrical engineering technology), now you are seeing the "BSEET" (bachelor's equivalent), BSMET, etc., which is treated as a 4-year associates degree. In practice, BSEET's get all the work but none of the credit of "real engineers" in most companies. They are taught at many legimitate universities and even at traditional engineering schools (my alma mater had a thriving technology department). However, none of their course work or their degrees receive ABET approval. I have a few "technology" credits on my transcript including "useless" classes such as machine shop, welding, and robotics. However, none of them could even be used for "general credits" towards a "real" ABET approved BSEE. In addition, schools such as "ITT Technical Institute" that give out 2 year degrees for technicians also hand out things like a "BSEET". The degree is generally not recognized by most employers as a "legitimate" engineering degree. The word "technology" means "technician" to most employers. It's as tough to have this as having a degree from a foreign university in another country. My personal opinion is that I see nothing wrong with the difference between the two. I don't put a lot of value in your degrees anyways since it demonstrates potential knowledge (but you could always just be cramming to pass tests and never learned anything). I'm more interested in what's on the resume in the "experience" section, but that's just me. HR departments take this deadly serious. Make no mistake that you will pay almost as much for as "BSEET" degree as a "BSEE" degree but you will always receive second-class treatment, but not from me. My advice for anyone looking to enter college is to steer clear of the 4 year technical degrees. If you are going to pay for a 4 year degree, get the traditional one. If the technical degree appeals to you, then get the 2 year one and save half your money and time. I'm not denigrating ECU. I think it's a good school. It's just that many have fallen into the "BSEE/BSEET" trap, and it is important to clarify this going into it. In fact since it was mentioned here and I heard similar words coming from one of our technicians at work (referring specifically to the ECU program), we're going to have to talk about this on Monday.

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You are correct pauleng, the program you spoke of is not ABET accredited. There are Technology programs that are ABET accredited and in most stated these four year program graduates can set for the EIT and after experience the PE exam. You are correct that ABET Engineering program is the way to go but ABET accredited Technology programs are also a good alternative as they are usually more flexible for working adults. I would stay away from anything not ABET accredited. Check ABET website for programs in your state. www.abet.org

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I just checked after posting that and we had a discussion at work (we're about 50 miles from ECU). ECU just got their engineering program accredited through ABET about 1 or 2 years ago. So depending on which part of it you are going for, they do indeed have a bonafide engineering program. The alternative prior to this program for local students would be to take a "pre engineering" type program at a local community college and then take the last year or two at a traditional four year college such as NC State.

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