There are a lot of things AI can do, and there are a lot of things AI cannot do. Analyses, content creation, number crunching – "can do." Empathy, feeling, serendipity – mostly on the "can't do" list (for now, at least). So, it was a treat to be introduced to a new suite of career planning tools purely (or mostly) by chance.
Last month, Brian Ford, NTCA vice president of federal regulatory, and I represented NTCA at the Universal Broadband Summit. This convening at Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C., brought together about 50 telecom professionals – from tech to trade associations to state broadband offices – for a closed-door, no-holds-barred conversation covering topics from permitting to affordability to workforce development. And since in Washington, D.C., everyone worked someplace else before they landed where they are now, I was able to reconnect with a great mind from NTIA who is now with an AI-powered workforce training and education company based in D.C.
Workforce development has been a recurring topic in the broadband industry for several years. As is the case with most things in life, there is rarely a single cause and even less often a single solution. NTCA has addressed workforce issues through several initiatives: working with Northwood Technical College in Wisconsin to create the Broadband Academy, an apprenticeship-based program that combines stackable industry credentials with mentored work experience; partnering with the National Rural Education Association (Tucson, Ariz.) to produce BOLD: Broadband Opportunities and Leadership Development, a toolkit for K-12 schools aimed at raising awareness of careers in the broadband and tech industry; and sharing our members' experiences with private and public sector interests on a regular basis to increase industry visibility.
Which brings us to a tool presented by E3 Alliance, which focuses on workforce readiness from early learning through post-secondary training, and Julius, a data-based workforce development company. Their online Semiconductors Career Lattice smartly presents as a semiconductor board, with varying fields of green, blue and gray. Its five columns (covering areas such as Wafer Fabrication and Supply Chain, Logistics & Business Operations, among others) are broken into skills-based rows for entry, mid-level and senior-career positions. Each of the multiple job titles in a field is denoted by a small button. Hover over the button and the average salary and education prerequisites appear. Click the button and lines extend upward and outward to other lateral or advanced positions that draw on those same skills.
As a planning tool for students, it is outstanding. As a lesson for workforce development professionals from any industry, it is instructive. Multiple jobs rely on common skill sets – both hard and soft. The menu-based approach demonstrates that students (including worker-learners) can find positions across industrial sectors that not only draw on cross-pollinated skills but also align with individual interests. In this vein, a different tool engineered by Julius and deployed by the energy sector updates the career aptitude tests many of us took in high school or college. The brief online survey asks targeted questions and then presents a set of career positions in the energy sector, ranked by their correspondence to the user's stated interests.
And yes, a Julius-powered, telecom-focused tool is in development.
Philosophers and theologians often remind us that even our most random-seeming experiences carry forward-looking lessons. So, here is mine: Working with our schools, how do we best catalog the jobs available in the broadband industry and correlate them to the interests and skills that can bring success to new and upskilled workers? How can those data points be presented in a way that is engaging – that draws in both students and workers seeking new challenges – not to poach from the semiconductor or energy sectors, but to present the good careers in broadband on equal footing?
And then there is serendipity. Like the reconnection at Georgetown Law that brought these new tools to my attention, career paths are often shaped by a chance interaction with a practitioner, a teacher, a family friend – leaving all of us the opportunity to serve as ambassadors. Not to push people toward jobs that might not suit them (a recent Wall Street Journal feature shares perspectives of "favorite after-school" jobs that had positive lifelong impacts), but simply to let them know what is out there, because we never know where we might land.
Serendipity guided by intelligence.