The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) supports future standardization leaders through educational tools that explore the critical role that standards represent in their everyday lives. Voluntary standards are documents that set specific guidelines for the design, operation, manufacture and use of nearly everything produced by mankind—ranging from computers to classroom essentials, such as whiteboards and chairs.
Several informational back-to-school educational posters on standardization basics can be found at www.ansi.org/students. These are targeted at K-12 students, but can also be useful to standards newcomers of all ages.
ANSI also offers free courses and resources to young, emerging professionals and students ("YES") through StandardsLearn.org— an online resource providing free, easy-to-use, self-paced educational tools for standards and conformity assessment education. Students of all ages can take a Short course: Through History with Standards to see how standards have made an impact on commerce and society, and how standards have evolved over a span of centuries—among other lessons.
Beginners can get a comprehensive standards overview with ANSI's presentationAn Introduction to Standards: Why, where, and how are they developed?
In a competitive marketplace, graduates who are familiar with the standards relevant to their industry and how the standards system works are a strategic asset to their future employers. ANSI's offers a University Outreach initiative that promotes the incorporation of standards-related information into the curricula of colleges and universities.
Getting Involved 101: Standardization Community Connections
Emerging professionals just launching their standardization careers can find and participate in standards development work that aligns with their line of work and expertise. One way of doing this is finding a related standards developing organization (SDO), or a U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) technical committee (TC), subcommittee (SC), project committee (PC). ANSI can help connect students and professionals with the organizations that are doing this work.
A searchable list of ANSI-accredited standard developers is available at www.ansi.org/asd. And a list of all current ANSI-accredited U.S. TAGs to ISO can be found at www.ansi.org/isotags.