Workforce Development-Lesley Lairikos
Feature Article written by Lesley Liarikos
The 2019 Annual NATE Summer Conference that took place in St. Louis, Missouri on August 6-8 was
a great success.
At the Conference, the Workforce Development Group had a very full agenda to discuss in a very short span of time. Currently one of the most important issues of the booming telecom industry is the substantial workforce shortage. Many companies suffer with not having enough skilled workers and have problems retaining long term employees.
One of the tasks of this group is to encourage community colleges, vocational institutes and even high schools to develop classroom, and field-based certificate programs to educate, and train a future pipeline of workers to build, deploy and maintain the next generation networks and related infrastructure that is so vital for America’s future. There are many programs and Legislation being introduced to allow funds appropriated to develop these programs. Our group is working to create a Guideline Core Education for these institutes to implement in their programs. This guideline will reflect the needs and requirements of the employers who will hire this new and upcoming workforce. The goal of this group is to have these programs implemented in schools nationwide.
The Workforce Development Group is also working to infiltrate the social media platforms to reach our youth and upcoming workforce. Becoming a Tower Technician is not a well-known career path such as becoming an electrician, carpenter or plumber. We are promoting becoming a Tower Technician as a rewarding career path and steppingstone into many career opportunities in the telecom industry. We look forward to attending workforce events, job fairs and visiting schools to promote the endless possibilities and productive careers in the telecom industry. Our goal is to encourage our upcoming youth to choose a
career path in the telecom industry and improving the skills of our industry workforce.
At the NATE Summer Conference, the Workforce Development Group discussed these topics in detail and many committee members shared ideas on how to move forward to accomplish these many immense goals. We anticipate this group has a lot of work ahead to reach these goals, but with the dedication and good will of our committee members, it will be a success.
I am very proud and honored to be part of this group which is making huge strides to help our industry’s workforce.
To view this article in the Tower Times September – October 2019 publication, click here.
Workforce Development-Lesley Lairikos
Feature Article written by Lesley Liarikos
The 2019 Annual NATE Summer Conference that took place in St. Louis, Missouri on August 6-8 was
a great success.
At the Conference, the Workforce Development Group had a very full agenda to discuss in a very short span of time. Currently one of the most important issues of the booming telecom industry is the substantial workforce shortage. Many companies suffer with not having enough skilled workers and have problems retaining long term employees.
One of the tasks of this group is to encourage community colleges, vocational institutes and even high schools to develop classroom, and field-based certificate programs to educate, and train a future pipeline of workers to build, deploy and maintain the next generation networks and related infrastructure that is so vital for America’s future. There are many programs and Legislation being introduced to allow funds appropriated to develop these programs. Our group is working to create a Guideline Core Education for these institutes to implement in their programs. This guideline will reflect the needs and requirements of the employers who will hire this new and upcoming workforce. The goal of this group is to have these programs implemented in schools nationwide.
The Workforce Development Group is also working to infiltrate the social media platforms to reach our youth and upcoming workforce. Becoming a Tower Technician is not a well-known career path such as becoming an electrician, carpenter or plumber. We are promoting becoming a Tower Technician as a rewarding career path and steppingstone into many career opportunities in the telecom industry. We look forward to attending workforce events, job fairs and visiting schools to promote the endless possibilities and productive careers in the telecom industry. Our goal is to encourage our upcoming youth to choose a
career path in the telecom industry and improving the skills of our industry workforce.
At the NATE Summer Conference, the Workforce Development Group discussed these topics in detail and many committee members shared ideas on how to move forward to accomplish these many immense goals. We anticipate this group has a lot of work ahead to reach these goals, but with the dedication and good will of our committee members, it will be a success.
I am very proud and honored to be part of this group which is making huge strides to help our industry’s workforce.
To view this article in the Tower Times September – October 2019 publication, click here.