JOB ENTRY REQUIREMENTS FOR ELECTRONICS TECHNICIANS

The objective of the research was to determine the common entry-level job requirements among various types of electronics industries in the State of Texas. A secondary objective was to determine if the entry-level requirements as perceived by electronics technicians were different from the entry-level requirements as perceived by the first line supervisors of electronics technicians.;As a result of the study 172 tasks were identified as being common to technicians across seven industrial classifications. The seven industrial classifications were: (1) Research and Development, (2) Communications, (3) Computers and Digital, (4) Manufacturing, (5) Petroleum and Oil Related, (6) Power Utility, (7) Other.;The results also indicated that technicians and supervisors agreed on which tasks were presently being performed in industry, and also agreed on the relative time spent performing the tasks. But, supervisors did not agree with the technicians as to the relative importance of the tasks. Supervisors also wanted to see all tasks learned in school while technicians thought many tasks could be learned on the job.;A task inventory consisting of 373 tasks were developed for electronics technicians. The study population consisted of two representatives from each of 429 electronics industries across the State of Texas. Each representative was asked to complete a task inventory questionnaire. One task inventory was to be completed by an electronics technician, and another task inventory was to be completed by the electronics technician's immediate supervisor. During the spring and summer of 1982 one hundred eighteen technicians returned usable inventories while 122 supervisors returned usable inventories. The results of the study were analyzed using nonparametric procedures.