IPC Certification Portal - IPC EDGE 2.0

The IPC is a trade organization consisting of those involved in designing, distributing, servicing, building and repairing electronic assemblies. This is a not-for-profit organization whose charter it is to educate, advocate for and provide a platform for standards development on a worldwide basis. Member companies are part of the global supply chain in hundreds of worldwide companies from powerhouse China to smaller, less influential countries from an electronics supply chain standpoint in Israel and Peru.

As one of its purposes, IPC assists in the development of the standards (members provide the input into those standards) and then facilitates the testing and certification of the knowledge of those standards. Member companies not only provide the input to the standards, but also, provide the input to the training materials including test questions for certification.

The manner in which this training is being delivered, tracked and information updated is housed inside the IPC EDGE training portal. IPC has developed its own set of online training programs for member and non-member companies and that information is housed inside the portal. In addition, the IPC certification program materials are also available inside of the edge platform. Once the member or non-member company gets access to the system and acknowledge their credentials they have access to both free and paid for training materials.

The IPC Edge 2.0 provides a great deal of functionality for the IPC certification and training programs. It is starting to house all of the training materials for the trainers-both CITs and MIT's-where they can find all of the training materials including the slide decks with the multiple translations. In the future, all of the updates will be done automatically. Instructors can then find the material on any browser. As it is a cloud-based portal, the system is very responsive. In addition, some of the background or "standard" training modules, which are part of the IPC training programs are included in the IPC EDGE 2.0 training portal. Testing is also accomplished with the structure of the IPC EDGE 2.0 training portal. In addition, all of the certifications are contained within the system making sure all of the certifications, which belong to the individual and are transportable, can be accessed by the certification owner. This "stop shop" for certification training, training materials, testing, and certification logging are all part of the IPC EDGE 2.0 training portal.

The EDGE 2.0 system is used by many people up and down the electronics assembly "food chain". Students and associates use the portal for basic training in electronics even before they get onto the factory floor. Training modules in EOS/ESD, MSD and component identification and how boards are assembled are all part of the process. As the older generation which grew up in the industry begin to retire the importance of this background training level is even more important. Industry veterans can also sharpen the skills in their toolbox learning about the latest specifications including but not limited to board cleanliness specifications, low melt solders and nano conformal coatings. Certified instructors, who partner with the IPC to help certify associates and instructors in various hand soldering standards, also use the training portal. Others use the IPC EDGE 2.0 portal within organizations in the receiving, sales, project management, and other areas in order to grow their proficiency in their job functions.