RFUANZ report: a call to action on training

As discussed for some time, the Radio Frequency Users Association of New Zealand (RFUANZ) has identified for some years that the telecommunications industry is rapidly moving towards a crisis in the availability of skilled radio technicians. Feedback from our members and the broader telecommunications community has been that the industry is crying out for a way to train new technicians for our industry.

Over the last five years, RFUANZ has been working on expanding training already put in place by previous RFUANZ boards. Specifically, RFUANZ has been supporting industry training provider E-tec in the development of a Level 4 NZQA qualification suitable for training radio technicians for the radio industry.

New Zealand Certificate in Customer Premises Systems (Level 4) Wireless Systems Strand — course overview:

• How to install, maintain and repair cabling, electronic communication equipment and devices for wireless systems.
• How to install, maintain, diagnose and repair wireless networking, wireless telemetry, and control applications, such as GPS, two-way radio communications, satellite communications and broadcasting communications systems.
• How to install and maintain radio wireless systems, such as broadcasting systems, two-way radio systems, cellular communication systems, RFID systems and telemetry monitoring systems.
• How to interpret electronic design systems.
• How to connect with telecommunication services.
• Knowledge of radio frequency legislation and standards.
• Technical knowledge of computer network engineering and networking infrastructure principles.
• How to identify and mitigate interference in wireless systems.
   

This course has been in place since January this year and to date the uptake has been rather disappointing. I would obviously like to thank the organisations that have taken up the opportunity and have staff signed up to the course. But to make the course viable we need to double the numbers that have signed up to date. The call to action for the industry is to not just discuss bringing a person onto the course but to get them signed up and training.

As discussed above, it has taken five years to get this training course in place and if we fail to take advantage of the opportunity the course will not be continued. Then our industry will be right back where we started, with no viable training pathway for people coming into our industry.

David Johnston, Committee Member, Radio Frequency Users Association of New Zealand.

Top image credit: iStock.com/ipuwadol