Young, Emerging Professionals and Students (YES)
Engaging the Next Generation of Standardization Leaders
What is standardization?
Standards are everywhere! From your tablet and cell phone to building safety and environmental technologies, all innovation, products, and services are shaped and guided
by standardization. They're developed by thousands of engineers and experts around the world to ensure the products, processes, and systems we rely on every day are safe,
reliable, efficient, and work effectively together.
The term “standardization” encompasses a broad range of activities and ideas – from the actual development of a standard to its promulgation, acceptance, and implementation.
It also includes conformity assessment or compliance – the methods of evaluating whether products, processes, systems, services, and personnel comply with a standard.
Like two sides of the same coin, standards development and conformity assessment work hand-in-hand.
Why is standards education vital?
Standards and conformance play a critical role in the economy, impacting more than 80% of global commodity trade. In today’s numbers that equates to over 14 trillion
dollars every year.
As a result, a new graduate who is familiar with the standards relevant to their industry and how the standards system works is a strategic asset to their future employer.
Effective utilization of standards and conformance promotes technological interoperability and drives the global competitiveness of businesses.
Furthermore, active participation in standards development provides an opportunity to exert influence on technical content and align products and services with
changing market demand.
To ensure the U.S. retains its strength and innovative edge in global markets, standardization is imperative as part of the curricula of our future managers,
scientists, and technologists.
How can we increase involvement in standardization?
The first step in getting young, emerging professionals and students (YES) – our future standardization leaders – involved in standards development activities is
educating them about the importance of standards. StandardsLearn.org is the place to begin.
StandardsLearn.org provides valuable, free tools for students of all ages to learn about standards and conformity assessment, as well as courses to learn about the
American National Standards (ANS) process and international standardization activities. The course that provides a comprehensive, beginners overview is An Introduction to Standards: Why, where, and how are they developed?.
Another way to get involved is to seek out the standards development work that aligns with your interest and expertise, and volunteer to partcipate on a related
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) technical committee (TC), subcommittee (SC), project committee (PC), or on a U.S. Technical Advisory Group (US/TAG).
ANSI can help connect you with the organizations that are doing this work. For more information about U.S. participation in ISO, contact isot@ansi.org.
A list of all current ANSI-accredited U.S. TAGs to ISO is available here.
“The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.” – Plato
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