Ramping Up the BEAD Workforce: 5 Things States, ISPs, and Construction Firms Can Be Doing Now

The $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program aims to connect 25 million Americans currently without high-speed Internet access. Building these broadband networks on time and at scale across 56 states and territories will require tens of thousands of broadband construction workers: from network designers to pole surveyors, from locators to drill operators, from general laborers to fiber splicers. Establishing partnerships as well as initiating and administrating education and training that prepares individuals to be effective across this spectrum of jobs can take between 9 months to 1 year. NTIA has outlined a series of steps that SBOs can consider implementing now to get ahead of a potential broadband construction labor shortage:

1. Establish Open Lines of Communication with Key Workforce Partners: Building a skilled workforce requires engaging a variety of stakeholders including employers, state agencies, and workforce solution providers.
2. Assess State and Local Broadband Workforce Needs
3. Consider a Sectoral Partnership Approach to Convene Partners
4. Identify complementary workforce funding to support BEAD workforce initiatives
5. Develop solutions and deploy workforce funding: Workforce solutions can be jointly developed with employers and workforce solution providers. The most effective providers ask employers to make hiring or interviewing commitments for individuals that complete training programs.