Certified Electronics Technician Exam
A Wireless Industry Standard now exists for your technicians through a series of independently administered low-cost certification exams that can be held in testing locations near your office. The certifications start with an Associates exam covering basic electronics and goes all the way up to a Master level that indicates proficiencies in 6 different areas of technical expertise with several competency levels available in between.
ETA (Electronics Technicians Association) and USMSS, along with a Board of independent reviewers, completed an updated version of the existing ETA Wireless Journeyman's Exam in 2008 that reflects the current knowledge standards required for our wireless technicians. It is available to anyone with at least 2 years of combined educational and technical work experience. Get your technicians certified by this independent process and advertise the fact that your company uses independently certified technicians. Your customers will definitely feel that your company has met a standard that is open to all and is geared to certifying the capabilities of your technicians. In time, many customers will require this type of independent certification, so be the first to complete this process and market this important accomplishment to your customers.
The wireless technician's standard is available now and we hope that you support this effort that is designed to help us maintain the highest levels of service quality in our industry.
Technician Certification Instructions
Thanks for making the decision to join the growing ranks of Wireless Certified Electronics Technicians. The Certification is designed to match your knowledge level with the criteria set forth by a group of industry professionals. Please also note that you can take the exam again, free-of-charge within a 12-month period if you are not successful on the initial attempts. Just contact the Electronics Technicians Association at 1-800-288-3824 to make the arrangements for taking this exam at a location near you. Please also note that your certification will remain current by forwarding your personal training information to ETA International on a yearly basis. In other words if you hold a Journeyman Level Certification, it will remain current as long as you provide continuing training information, a $25 processing fee, and are still a practicing wireless technician. An ETA membership is provided for the technicians who have maintained their technical certification, which also lets your customer know that you are keeping up-to-date with fast paced technology changes.
To prepare for the exam go to www.eta-i.org and click on the Certifications Category noted at the top of the page and then under Certifications click on either the WCM Wireless category or the USMSS Wireless Category. You will then see a detailed outline of all the material covered in the exam for your review, followed by some suggested reference material that might help you review specific areas covered in the outline. The WCM Journeyman level exam is geared more towards the bench technician and the USMSS version includes competencies that are required of a field technician. No surprises here. This is the material that will be covered. Please also note that on the ETA web site there is a text referred to under Study Material as the Associate CET Study Guide that can be purchased for $68 plus shipping and handling. This text serves as an excellent review for some of the more basic material covered in the exam. About 50% of the exam questions have come from the material covered in that Study Guide. Please also forward any other good reference material that you find so that we can share it with all future participants.
Thanks again for your participation in this program and please give me any comments or suggestions that you have after completing the exam. We are constantly upgrading these certification exams based on your input so please take a moment and send us your comments or suggestions at
dpierson55@hotmail.com
or give us a call at 847-395-3077.
Sincerely,
George Fleming
USMSS
Levels of Technician Certification
Here are some additional details on this certification process that is outlined on the Electronic Technicians Association (ETA) web site
www.eta-sda.com. There are several certification levels that exist for the Wireless Technician.
Associate C.E.T.
The first level is the Associate C.E.T. (Certified Electronics Technician) that is a basic electronics exam for a beginning technician or a recent tech school graduate with 2 years or less of combined education and work experience. This certification is good for 2 years. This Exam is $60 and like all of these certification exams they can be taken at any of over 600 locations in the U.S. There is also study material available for this exam through ETA as noted on their web site.
Journey Wireless C.E.T.
The second is the Journeyman Wireless C.E.T. Exam that has 200 questions and includes all of the material covered in the Associate level plus the existing material that has been updated by USMSS and ETA. The cost is $100 and the certification is geared to the technician with at least 4 years of combined education and job experience. This certification is good for 4 years unless you are a member of ETA and update your training records on a yearly basis. The cost for this is update service and membership is $25 per year. ETA has posted the topic outline for this certification on their web site. Go to www.eta-sda.com and click on Certifications and then under Certifications click on the category marked Wireless to get a detailed outline of the material covered plus some reference text recommendations. Please also note that the Associate CET Study Guide is available through ETA covering about half of the material included on this certification exam. This reference material can be kept on hand for future participants
Senior Journeyman C.E.T.
The third level is the Senior Journeyman C.E.T where an individual gets a score of 85 or better on the Journeyman exam noted above and has 6 years or more of combined educational and job experience. The cost for this certification is $125 because this level includes a special recognition plaque provided by ETA for the technician.
Master Technician
The final level is the Master Technician who must have at least 6 years of combined work and educational experience and have passed the Associates level exam plus 6 of the specialized Journeyman options also available through ETA. This is a 400-question exam and the applicant must score at least 75% on each exam. The cost for this certification process is $150
Please note that all individuals who receive their certification are officially registered on the ETA web site and also get a card and certificate stating their accomplishment. Also note that technicians can take a second journeyman level exam within 12 months free of charge to improve their score. In addition, by maintaining membership in ETA for $25 per year and submitting updated training information each year your individual journeyman level certifications will remain current. If you don’t follow this training update practice the ETA/USMSS Journeyman Certification will be good for 4 years.
If you want to investigate taking these exams locally please contact Teresa Maher at ETA, 800-288-3824. If you have any other questions, ideas, or suggestions please let us know at dpierson55@hotmail.com
or call USMSS at 847-395-3077.
Click Here for a list of the Competency Requirements
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