| General Resources: Skills
for Electricity
The skill standards cited here
are abstracted from a report1 prepared jointly
by the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) and the
Electronic Industries Foundation (EIF). The project
was funded in 1992 by the U.S. Department of Education's
Business and Education Standards Program which is, in
turn, an offshoot of the Secretary's Commission on Achieving
Necessary Skills (SCANS) program. SCANS is most
widely recognized for its America 2000 report2.
The technical skills and competencies
are classified as
These topics fall within the scope
of Electricity: Principles and Applications, Sixth
Edition.
General
Demonstrate an understanding of:
| Proper safety techniques for
all types of circuits and components, as well
as OSHA standards. |
| Proper troubleshooting techniques
and the use of listening skills or assisting devices
to assess signals and symptoms of malfunctions.
|
| Basic assembly skills, including
soldering and desoldering techniques and the use
of solderless terminals. |
| Use of data books and technical
manuals. |
| Color codes and other component
descriptors. |
| Electrical and environmental
site survey. |
Interpret and create:
| Schematic
diagrams. |
| Technical
drawings. |
| Flow diagrams.
|
| Curves, tables, and graphs.
|
| Recorded data.
|
Describe the function and
use (with examples of appropriate situations for use),
demonstrate ability to use, apply all necessary safety
procedures, and demonstrate correct setup procedures for:
| Hand tools
and power tools. |
| Soldering-desoldering
equipment and supplies. |
Back to Top
DC
Circuits
Demonstrate an understanding of:
| Sources of electricity in
DC circuits, particularly the principles and operation
of batteries. |
| The meaning and relationships
between DC voltage, current, resistance, and power.
|
| Measurement of resistance
of conductors and insulators, and the computation
of conductance. |
| Application of Ohm's law to
series, parallel, and series-parallel circuits.
|
| Magnetic properties of circuits
and devices. |
| Physical and electrical characteristics
of capacitors and inductors. |
Fabricate, demonstrate the
operation, troubleshoot, and repair DC circuits, including:
| Series and
parallel circuits. |
| Series-parallel
circuits. |
| Bridge circuits.
|
| Voltage dividers (loaded and
unloaded). |
| RC
and RL circuits. |
Describe the function and
use (with examples of appropriate situations for use),
demonstrate ability to use, apply all necessary safety
procedures, and demonstrate correct setup procedures for:
| DC power sources.
|
| Ground fault
testers. |
Describe the function and use (with examples of appropriate
situations for use), demonstrate ability to use, apply
all necessary safety procedures, demonstrate correct setup
procedures, record results of equipment use, and interpret
the result of testing for:
| Electrical
resistance insulation testers. |
| Multimeters
(analog and digital). |
| Oscilloscopes. |
Back to Top
AC
Circuits
Demonstrate an understanding of:
| Sources of electricity in
AC circuits. |
| Properties of an AC signal,
including the characteristics of sinusoidal and
nonsinusoidal waveforms. |
| Basic motor-generator theory.
|
| Measurement of power in AC
circuits. |
| Principles and operation of
power conditioning devices (isolation transformers,
surge suppressors, uninterruptable power systems,
etc.). |
| Principles and operation of
safety grounding systems (lightning arrestors,
ground fault interruptors, etc.). |
| Impedance-matching theory.
|
| Principles of polyphase circuits.
|
Fabricate, demonstrate the
operation, troubleshoot, and repair AC circuits, including:
| Capacitive circuits. |
| Inductive circuits. |
| Transformers. |
| Differentiator and integrator
circuits. |
| RC, RL, and
RLC circuits. |
| Series and parallel resonant
circuits. |
| Frequency selective filter
circuits. |
| Phase-locked loop circuits.
|
Describe the function and
use (with examples of appropriate situations for use),
demonstrate ability to use, apply all necessary safety
procedures, record results of equipment use, and interpret
the result of testing for:
| Capacitor/inductor analyzers.
|
| Frequency counters. |
| Function generators. |
Describe the function and use (with examples of appropriate
situations for use), demonstrate ability to use, apply
all necessary safety procedures, demonstrate correct setup
procedures for:
| Isolation transformers. |
| Voltage isolation transformers
(adjustable). |
Back to Top
1Raising the Standard:
Electronics Technician Skills for Today and Tomorrow,
Electronic Industries Foundation, 1994.
2America 2000:
An Education Strategy Sourcebook, U.S. Department
of Education, 1991.
|
