DEPARTMENTS
CEDIA Says
Building the Next Generation of
Residential Technicians
Tackling Workforce Development with CEDIA Electronic Systems Integration Technician Training
By Ed Wenck
Over the course of last summer, CEDIA
headquarters in Indianapolis hosted the
inaugural CEDIA Electronic Systems
Integration Technician Training program, an
immersive occupational skills training program
that stretched over 12 weeks. The students –
recruited from trade schools, vocational, and
community colleges, and a variety of other
sources – are new to the industry. The pilot
program is an integral part of CEDIA’s strategic
commitment to workforce development.
Jeff Gardner, a longtime CEDIA volunteer and
primary instructor for this program, summed up
the issue that integration firms are facing:
“These smaller companies have people that are
qualified to move up and take on more
responsibilities and become designers,
engineers, lead technicians. But you can’t move
them up unless you’ve got somebody to replace
them. So, we need people with some basic
knowledge who have the fundamentals to come
in and be productive from day one.”
Gardner’s sentiment is echoed by another
CEDIA volunteer instructor, Joe Whitaker.
18 Residential Tech Today | Jan/Feb 2020
Whitaker, who’s also on
the Global Board of
Directors and lends a
hand to the Workforce
Development Working
Group, added,
“Workforce development
is one of the most serious
issues within our industry
today: finding early level,
base-trained technicians
to come into our
industry.”
The Curriculum
CEDIA already offers a
fairly broad variety of entry-level training; the
association’s Basic Boot Camp is a prime
example. Tommy Tabor, CEDIA’s director of
workforce development, outlined the changes in
what CEDIA’s offered previously and this
initiative: “This program is vastly different from
the Boot Camps and the one-off trainings we
offer at our conferences and seminars. This is a
108-hour occupational skills training program
that provides not only academic information
but also hands-on vocational training that
covers a very broad variety of skills. Individuals
who participate in this program have an
opportunity to earn two industry-recognized
credentials and connect with employers.”
The coursework, developed by CEDIA’s
technical experts and education staff, draws
from a variety of materials in CEDIA’s library of
resources – a library that’s being updated
constantly by CEDIA’s subject matter experts.
The Students
Nate Raab, who had some experience in the
field of live sound engineering, was hired by a
firm in Indy even before he’d finished his
The CEDIA Electronic Systems Integration Technician Training program is an
immersive occupational skills training program that stretched over 12 weeks.
training. The training he’d received proved
invaluable.
“My first day on the job, and I was using
compression tools. I was terminating Cat 6,
right off the bat,” Raab said. It’s a direct result of
the tactile approach that’s favored by Gardner,
Whitaker, and the other CEDIA instructors
who are volunteering their time to this effort.
“I think the best part of this coursework is
having hands-on experience in the rooms,”
Raab said. “You make mistakes once, before
you get onto the job site. Overestimating or
underestimating the cable run, before it matters,
is a mistake you should only have to make once,
and I can make it here in this sandbox.”
Brett Jagger, another student who’s landed a
gig, is enamored of the fact that he’s found a
trade that matches his interests. “This has been
a passion of mine for a long time,” Jagger said.
“I mean, I have my own microphone for test
calibration of my theater system at home.
I’ve never really worked ‘in my passion’ before
and when I heard about this class opening
up, man, it sounded like a great chance to do
just that.” x