Federal money will help Baltimore workers get ‘shovel ready’ with broadband infrastructure jobs training

Baltimore (MD) Civic Works Program Director Eli Allen was approached by Paniagua’s Enterprise, a Baltimore-based communications construction company, to find workers capable of laying out fiber-optics for broadband and doing the accompanying construction work. “ [Paniagua’s Enterprise] identified a significant skills gap in being able to hire workers for these critical jobs, and have seen… an increased investment in the work,” explained Allen. Two million dollars from the Department of Labor's (DOL) Building Pathways to Infrastructure Jobs could close some of that gap. Over the next five years, Civic Works—in partnership with Paniagua's Enterprise—plans to develop a curriculum and train 260 people who face barriers to traditional employment including those returning from incarceration or facing unstable housing. They’ll be placed with half a dozen local companies to work on everything from working on the Baltimore conduit system, to installing new broadband, said Allen.