EDITORIAL: Addressing Our Industry’s Nomenclature Problem
February 2007 By Joe Paone, Editor-in-Chief, CustomRetailerSo many intriguing installers, integrators and retailers are out there doing amazing things, loaded with the knowledge and expertise that can enable connected digital lifestyles for people of all economic and demographic stripes. But very few consumers know what to call you. If they read or hear about lighting control or home automation or whole-house audio and they want to look someone up in the phone book who can help them make it happen, what are they looking under? And if they don’t know what to call you, they won’t call you. Or e-mail you. Let’s be honest: Dealer locator tools, no matter how good, have a limited level of effectiveness.
The nomenclature problem extends to labor recruitment. If a kid wants to grow up and be an electrician or an accountant, he or she knows there’s a trade school or college that offers a curriculum for such disciplines. If he or she wants to install home theater systems or whole-home entertainment, what are the educational options? What’s the career path? Most people today seem to have fallen into this industry by circumstance or because of a strong personal interest in the technology.
The Electronic Systems Professional Alliance (ESPA) is an ambitious effort to change all of this by providing a base universal certification and education program for low-voltage installers. It seeks not only to establish and legitimize a base term for installers—which it calls “electronic systems technicians” or ESTs—but it also wants to get that term and that line of work in front of high school guidance counselors, job placement programs for people coming out of the military, and the academics who put together curricula for trade schools and universities. The goal is to create, in ESPA’s words, a “career-ready workforce for the industry.” The education and certification program is being devised as we speak, and is slated to debut in the fourth quarter.
It’s a heady project, and it’s sure to be met with the usual dose of world-weary skepticism from some corners of our industry, but it’s high time. The program was started last fall by three heavy-hitting partners—the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) and the National Systems Contractors Association (NSCA). Recently, the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), Tweeter Home Entertainment, the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association (SBCA) and HDMI Licensing endorsed the program. Getting these organizations together on something of this magnitude—not an easy task, to say the least—is impressive enough. And more big names are on the way, say those shepherding the program.
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Here, here! Why no one in our industry has stood up to address this issue before now I'll never understand. There are very limited paths to finding new qualified installers or even someone young that would like to learn the trade and grow with the company. I look forward to reading about the progress of this program.