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(DENVER) — The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) announced today that a collaborative, multi-agency Colorado Broadband Initiative has resulted in successful completion of 100% of its participants, with several graduates in two southwest Colorado communities already securing employment and additional direct hires underway. The pilot program was the first of its kind in Colorado and has established a new model for replication throughout the state, linking local broadband industry needs to state-level resources and industry partners to provide skills training and develop the needed broadband workforce.
The Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation led the pilot project locally, collaborating with the Colorado Broadband Office (CBO), the Colorado Rural Workforce Consortium (CRWC) within CDLE, and the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE®), a subsidiary of CableLabs®, to implement the broadband training initiative. Pagosa Springs, which includes all 1,000-square-miles of Archuleta County, was selected for the pilot broadband training initiative last November due to its successful workforce development and youth summer work programs over the last three years.
“This was truly a Cinderella story of everyone working together to contribute a little piece of magic at the eleventh hour to make this pilot successful,” Emily Lashbrooke, executive director for Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation. “The participants were fully committed to the two-week intensive training, as was every organization that funded, subsidized and secured equipment, facilitated training and, ultimately, provided jobs.”
The CRWC’s Workforce Innovation Grant funded the training on February 14 with a March 31 deadline for the project’s completion. In less than five weeks, through the expedited cooperation of multiple organizations, program logistics were finalized, equipment and a training partner were secured, and participants were recruited. SCTE facilitated the full-time, two-week training to 33 participants, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday – Friday. This Broadband Fiber Installer Boot Camp provided intensive, hands-on training designed to equip learners with the skills necessary for SCTE’s BFI professional certification. Every participant completed and passed the broadband bootcamp, achieving a 100% completion rate for the training. All 19 participants in Cortez have also taken the BFI exam and secured their BFI professional certification. The 14 participants in Pagosa Springs will be eligible to take the BFI exam after completing 120 hours with hands-on experience.
"We are proud to see such a holistically complete success story of a public-private collaboration. To witness it happen within mere weeks from implementation to execution makes this an even more notable accomplishment," said Joe Barela, executive director of CDLE. "The efforts behind this inaugural broadband initiative to increase the skilled workforce in two rural communities, will not only help to provide reliable fiber internet across southwest Colorado, but will serve as the model of partnership to build and leverage resources to train the broadband workforce for other areas of the state."
At the time of this report, two participants were hired in Pagosa immediately following the training with two more pending work experience. Several others, who were already employed with Internet Service Providers (ISPs), leveraged the program to upskill and earn their new broadband fiber installation certification. All seven participants from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe are now employed in fiber-related work in Cortez, with four securing on-the-job training, and others waiting to be placed in jobs with ISPs that are awaiting funding from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, which will create approximately 3,000 jobs in telecom, construction and engineering across the state.
The Colorado Broadband Office partnered with local entities, facilitated community-led implementation, and coordinated with vendors to deliver the equipment necessary for hands-on learning. The Pagosa Community Development Corporation used $50,000 from the Innovation Grant to pay for the training. The local workforce centers in Pagosa Springs and Cortez within the CRWC involved ISPs in the area who ultimately hired some of the participants.
“Public-private partnerships are critical to train and employ individuals for these roles within the next five to seven years,” said Brandy Reitter, CBO Executive Director. “This collaboration will ensure projects are completed on time, allowing residents to benefit from the life-changing access to high-speed internet.”
The Southwest Colorado Education Collaborative provided critical in-kind support, supplying laptops and coordinated meals from local ISP’s to training participants. The CRWC leveraged $30,000 in Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and Workforce Training Grant (WTG) funding to help offset additional training costs and played a key role in coordinating Sector Conveners, funded by the Colorado Workforce Development Council (CWDC). These Conveners brought partners together to launch the Broadband Sector Partnership in November.
The Archuleta County Broadband Office hosted the Pagosa Springs cohort and Region 9 Shak Powers hosted participants in Cortez. Industry participants from both communities including Aligntec, Bonfire, Clear Networxs/Deeply Digital, Emerytelcom, Farmers Telecommunications, Fasttrack, FTI Wifi, La Plata Electric, Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes, and Visionary Broadband provided equipment, staffing, and employment opportunities.
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