Profinet/Profibus Training Center Targets 1000th Graduate

The PROFI Interface Center (PIC) in Johnson City, TN, USA, an organization dedicated to Certifying “Network Engineers” for Profibus and Profinet, has made a significant investment in new equipment and systems to enhance its ability to train industrial networking engineers in coming years.
The PIC is part of the global network of Competence Centers (CC), Training Centers (TC) and Test Labs (TL) established by PI, the umbrella organization responsible for Profibus and Profinet worldwide, and began operations in 1996.

Training Center Manager Torsten Paulsen said: “We deliver our classes under the “PROFItech” brand. Certified Network Engineers receive intense training in Profinet and/or Profibus and are capable of developing products and systems. During the past 17 years we have successfully certified 887 Network Engineers. We’re already the most successful PITC in the world for Certified Network Engineer training and we’re expecting to certify our 1000th graduate sometime in the next 12 months.”
Paulsen added: “Almost one third of our successful students are certified for Profinet and in 2012 the PIC certified twice as many Profinet engineers as Profibus DP/PA engineers demonstrating the momentum Profinet now has in North America.”

Certified Network Engineer status for Profinet and Profibus is awarded to candidates who successfully complete written and practical tests held at the end of a 5-day training course. They also earn 24 Professional Development Hours (PDH). Successful candidates are entitled to call themselves Certified Profinet and/or Certified Profibus Network Engineers and their names and their email addresses are posted on the www.profibus.com web site.
Profibus classes focus mainly on Profibus DP technology for discrete automation but the PIC also offers a Profibus PA “add-on” class for process automation. The PIC has just introduced for 2013 a combined class for Profibus DP/PA, which in addition to covering Profibus DP in the discrete manufacturing sector devotes time for “hands-on” setup of Profibus PA instruments and networks and the use of Profibus PA engineering tools in the process automation sector. This combined class enables two Network Engineer certificates to be gained in one week.

Commented Paulsen: “Our new equipment includes updated systems and racks supplied by a greater variety of vendors having common feature sets. It includes devices from Siemens, GE Intelligent Platforms, Phoenix Contact, Hilscher and Turck. In addition, we have powerful class PC’s for a greater learning experience and virtual machines for consistent software performance and smooth class transitions. We’ve updated the class content to keep it fresh and take in recent technical developments and to meet the latest PI guidelines. We’ve also added new “hands-on” exercises for popular Profinet features such as I-Device and Shared Devices.”

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