The International Radio Frequency Identification Business Association (RFIDba), a global, not-for-profit, trade association that promotes vendor-neutral education on RFID technologies and business applications, announced that it has commissioned a major cross-industry assessment of RFID knowledge, job skills and critical work processes required in the workplace as the first step towards establishing a global RFID Certification Program.
The assessment project will be conducted by Applied Skills & Knowledge (AS&K), an education and work standards firm based in Morristown, N.J., with experience in the development and validation of work standards for the manufacturing, retail, biotechnology, information technology and communication systems industries.
"With RFID so closely linked to business performance improvement, a holistic, systems approach to education is needed. It is therefore imperative that vendor-neutral education standards be established globally to meet the rising demand for relevant RFID skills and knowledge among technology and business professionals," said Harry P. Pappas, CEO and Founder of the RFIDba. "By selecting Applied Skills and Knowledge as our partner in this endeavor, this first-of-its-kind initiative will benefit industry enormously. We are excited to be leveraging the resources and insights of one of the foremost firms in education standards and certification program development."
AS&K and RFIDba will collaborate on the development of work standards and job certifications based on interviews and focus groups conducted with thought leaders, subject matter experts and end-users across a number of high performance organizations.
"We are honored to have been selected by the International RFID Business Association as their strategic partner on this important RFID education standards and certification initiative," said Dr. Paul Squires, President, AS&K and internationally recognized industrial psychologist. "By gathering information from the actual hands-on experience of organizations already working with RFID, we will build an extraordinary body of knowledge on education and skills requirements. Individuals and organizations alike will recognize that certifications derived from this work will, in fact, truly prepare them for success with RFID from both a technology and business application perspective."
According to RFIDba, the RFID work standards model will be developed through a cooperative effort of a number of member organizations.
On an ongoing basis, AS&K will develop and validate the RFID work standards that will be used as the blueprint for RFID curricula and certification assessments. The work standards will remain vendor neutral and will be updated annually, providing sponsoring members of the association with information about the job and work design impact following the implementation of an RFID system, the groups noted in a release.
