标签: hvac

Several days ago, I was doing some "veg-out" surfing of late-night TV, where the commercials give a different and eye-opening insight into market trends and viewer priorities. Among the commercials, there are always many for various trade schools and training, were they teach practical, hands-on skills to be an HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) installation/repair technician, legal assistant, medical office manager, computer technician, electrician, or plumber. I've seen these many times and usually don't notice them anymore. But there was one new series of ads for a program in criminal justice, including forensic technician that got my attention—but not for the reason you might think. Yes, being a crime-scene assistant seems like a viable opportunity, but what really struck me as the school that was offering it: ITT Technical Institute . The ad highlighted both the glamour of living and working the crime-scene investigator life, no doubt spurred by TV shows such as CSI, Bones, and many others, as well as the bright employment prospects. . Why did this make me sit up, figuratively and literally? Historically, ITT Tech focused on training technicians for IT support, telecom networks, and general electronics support. These technicians are a vital part of the project design and development team to get that prototype, built, tested, debugged, and released, or keeping installed systems running. . It looks to me like ITT Tech has seen that area of interest has moved on to new areas. The lure and opportunity of "electronics" has been pushed aside by the allure of criminal forensics. You can't blame the school: they have to go where they (or their prospective students) see opportunity and action. But it does give you an indctaipon of where society and culture are placing their bets. . I'm not saying we need TV shows which highlight or glamorize the engineering life (that's not going to happen, anyway, see here ) but we should at least acknowledge public perception of our status and stature has changed, and is possibly being eclipsed by other arenas. What does the new focus say about EE life and opportunity? Has the reality has changed? Or is this just a case of TV creating an image, and the public being persuaded? .