Workforce Development Solutions

Världsomspännande partners

Market Research Future estimates that between 2022 and 2030, the fiber optics market value will nearly double to $13.7 with no slowing in sight. With the already explosive growth of data centers and fiber to the home initiatives, the industry is experiencing a significant shortage of properly trained technicians to perform installation and maintenance. This shortage is not new and is not unique to these areas.

Over the past thirty years we have experienced a shift in attracting new talent into blue collar technical fields. In the mid-nineties there was a shift in the K-12 education system where students were encouraged to pursue non-technical fields and go to college to earn a four-year degree to obtain a perceived better employment opportunity. Through that, we witnessed the reduction of “shop” class offerings due to students no longer having an interest, as they were encouraged to follow a more academic path.

Following that movement, there were fewer technicians entering the electrical, datacom, and telecom fields by choice. Historically, many new entrants to these fields were the result of a family member bringing the next generation into the field, either with encouragement to make an honest living, or more often to prevent them from getting into, or to remove them from, a delinquent path in life. Over time, those relatives working in those fields wanted better for their younger family members and we saw a trend where fewer were ushered into these fields. This was the beginning of an ever-growing shortage of needed technicians.

The result was that we now have a significant gap in the age distribution of available technicians. According to Zippia and, what has become the accepted metric, the median age of line technicians, datacom technicians, and telecom technicians is 43-45 years old. As these technicians age out and retire, or move on to management roles, there is not an equal amount entering the field. It is commonly agreed upon that for every five technicians that exit the industry, there is only one to replace them. The baseline is an 80% shortage just to build maintain the networks which does not account for the additional demands required for the data center and fiber to the home growth.

Filling this demand requires multiple channels of attraction and preparation to ensure success. Beyond the traditional methods of recruitment such as job postings, career fairs, lateral reassignments, there is a need for more innovative paths to attract new technicians. State and community college workforce development programs, as well as K-12 awareness are ideal starting points.

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Light Brigade, the leader in fiber optic skills training, has developed an innovative approach for K-12 career exploration and STEM learning. We have developed two levels of what we call Fiber Optics in a Box. The first level is aimed at grades 6-8 to bring basic understanding of how fiber optics works with video-based learning, a look into field related career opportunities, basic light behavior experiments, and an entry level exposure to hands on fiber optic activities. The level 2 option is aimed at grades 9-12 that revisits career opportunities and provides more advanced exposure to fiber optics hands-on activities including connector termination, inspection and cleaning, fusion splicing, test and measurement, and troubleshooting techniques. The level 2 solution includes a classroom instructional content package allowing teachers to help expose the learners to the basic theoretical principles that complement the hands-on learning. Both levels act as a primer to build career awareness and to encourage students to either enroll in a CTE Telecommunications course in grades 11-12 or pursue further education and certification via a workforce development program or higher education post-graduation.

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Light Brigade is the leader in fiber optics hands-on skills training. For over 35 years we have trained the best-of-the-best fiber optic technicians around the world. These K-12 focused adaptations of our world class training curriculum aim to bring awareness of skills and career operations related to fiber optics, enabling learners to map their career desires toward post-graduation options for employment, enlistment, or education and certification.​