Hey all, I've recently been working with our county's broadband task force, investigating the expansion and equity of broadband networks on a local and state level. Through that, it's become clear that there's a painful shortage of fiber / outside plant technicians in the state of Michigan (if not nation-wide) in order to fulfill the workforce requirements of maintaining the current broadband fiber infrastructure in the state, much less to fuel fiber expansion, and especially in rural areas. There appear to be few options for training the required workforce, especially outside of the large enterprises that have the resources to run their own internal programs, and small (or even mid-sized) ISPs seem to be left with predominantly informal person-to-person transfer of internal knowledge, assuming that they have the required internal knowledge in the first place. This need for a qualified workforce is exacerbated in the face of the multitude of state and federal programs to encourage broadband internet expansion and equity, such as the upcoming $42.5 billion in BEAD grant funding and corresponding construction starting in ~12-18 months state- and nation-wide. As a result, our workforce development team over here at Mott Community College (Genesee County, MI) is working to develop a fiber / outside plant training and apprenticeship program in order to help address this shortage of qualified personnel and training options at a local and state level. We're looking for some industry contacts that would be interested in collaborating with us to establish high-level requirements regarding what skills need to be taught to prospective fiber / outside plant technicians, what qualifications trainees should have after completion in order to fulfill current workforce demands, and to otherwise provide input in sketching out a high-level curriculum. We're looking for feedback from a wide cross-section of industry stakeholders -- large enterprise backbone transit providers, rural residential ISPs, fiber co-ops and municipal networks, operations and outside plant managers, etc. -- in order to determine what the industry wants and needs, and how the entire community college system can help meet those needs. If anyone thinks that they have valuable input to provide regarding these workforce requirements, or knows the right people to talk to, please reach out and let me know! Rhys Barrie (He/Him) Network Engineer - Mott Community College Member - Genesee County Broadband Task Force (810) 762-0030 | rhys.barrie@mcc.edu | https://mcc.edu/