Leadership at the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) is celebrating after their Optical Telecom Installer Certification (OpTIC) program was selected for a pilot to become the primary fiber optic technician credential for Job Corps.

Deborah Kish, a vice president of research and workforce development with the FBA, said she had worked with Job Corps for roughly a year and a half before the FBA’s OpTIC Path program was selected as Job Corps’ primary fiber-optic training credential.

Kish, who spoke to Broadband Communities, celebrated the news, which was announced by the FBA Nov. 29, and said the Job Corps’ target audience, young people between the ages of 16-24, are the same audience she hopes can be convinced to begin careers in telecommunications.

“I look at the at-risk youth as our target market,” she said. “That’s our low hanging fruit. These are the kids that aren’t getting pushed into college degrees.”

Job Corps, a vocational training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, has a stated mission of helping young people prepare for careers in the trades, according to the organization’s website.

She said Job Corps has five facilities across the United States that offer fiber tech programs, but she said the material being taught at those facilities has been largely related to multimode fiber.

“We’re not really seeing a whole lot of multimode fiber being deployed and we’re looking at fiber-to-the-home,” she said.

The FBA first created the OpTIC Path program in 2021 to develop a training credential and strengthen the fiber broadband workforce, according to the FBA’s announcement about their new relationship with Job Corps.

“The fiber broadband industry is experiencing its largest investment cycle ever and service providers across the U.S. are looking to build or expand fiber networks,” the announcement stated. “However, a massive gap in qualified fiber technicians needed to build those networks still exists.”

Previously, Broadband Communities has reported that Gary Bolton, the CEO and president of the FBA, said the association estimates the country will need 205,000 fiber-optic technicians to meet the demand created by the BEAD program.

Kish said Job Corps has not changed much of their training programming in years. She said she got the sense that Job Corps wants to move towards “more exciting and relevant training programs.”

“That’s where we come in,” she said.

In addition to their engagement with Job Corps, the FBA is currently engaged with 40 states, 44 service providers, and 70 community colleges and training institutions to roll out the OpTIC Path program, the FBA said. The association said electric cooperatives in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Tennessee, and Oklahoma have either already adopted or expressed interested in the program.

Job Corps will pilot the OpTIC program at their Oneonta, New York campus before rolling it out nationally.

“With more than 120 campuses across the U.S., Job Corps would become the second-largest producer of OpTIC Path graduates, helping to develop the technical workforce needed to connect every community to fiber broadband networks,” the FBA’s announcement stated.

Comments from Thayne Bodenmiller, a director at the Oneonta Job Corps campus, were included with the FBA’s announcement.

“Fiber technicians are in high demand across the country, so the addition of the OpTIC Path course provides a great opportunity for our students to train for a career that is highly competitive and valued,” Bodenmiller said. “We look forward to launching OpTIC Path and helping train the next generation of fiber broadband technicians.”

The FBA has also supported apprenticeship models to help narrow the industry’s labor gap. On the same day they celebrated their new partnership with Job Corps, the FBA announced the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA) and its Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program (TIRAP) reached the milestone of 100 employer partners.

Kish, who also serves as a TIRAP advisory committee member, said the FBA is committed to promoting the apprenticeship model and increasing adoption from internet service providers.

“By building and maintaining a pipeline of well-trained employees, we can ensure fiber networks are built and delivered to every home in the nation,” she said.

More information about the FBA’s OpTIC Path program is available here, at the FBA’s website.