Washington d. C. Of additional video as well. There is an opportunity right before you. The question is, are you prepared to seize it . Hundreds of thousands of louiel services, education, jobs and family remain frustratingly out of reach. Because they do not have a way to connect. The good news is, the funds are now available bringing■ Digital Access to everyone. What is missing . You. We need thousands of individuals who are ready to help build the crucial broadband infrastructure that our state needs. So with pay and benefit you can grow your future on. A rewarding careerhe ordinary directly contribute to the advancement of our beloved state, louisiana. Are you rea f change . Find your career at broadband nation. Org. David, welcome. ■ the ceo of tia not only broadband but broadband deployment, broadb trying to come with a solution on a critical issue. We have all of the funding private and public that we have never had to connect every american. The question is, do we have the workforce . Wheres the problem you are trying to solve and how are sol . First of all thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. We hav a the country course from 100 billion or more state and federal money to build out broadband that is on top of all the private networks built in the satellite world across the country as well. T we have a woro the tune of maybe 200,000 people eight shortage in thatange to build out broadband in the next four five years. The bead program that is the duration of the bead program. My hair and aging out of the broadband industry. More than a quarter of the industry is over age 55. Fo every nine one of our major partner says to list every nine job openings they have they get one application. And what we have seen for every five people leaving the industry only one is coming in. Real issue that needs to be solved if these networks are going to be built. Tell us, what kind of job are you talking about . So what we have been focusing on first are the construction, the splicing, the tech jobs, in the field jobs, the tower climbers, the Network Engineering jobs. Things of that sort initially. Those are the major shortages we so we decided after speaking last summer we spent our with his team as well as to build a program to attract, train, deliver to fill those jobs that are needed across the country and every state and territory. Most in a Rural America thats already struggling finding good jobs. Are you doing that . What we have decided to dos two things. First is create a very innovative portal and online portal working with every state that is our intention touild state specific as well as looking at things of a nationalt to attract. Theres a lot of job boards out there and Workforce Development efforts. But there is nothing that■8 bris it all together that attracts, trains, delivers the same sites. What we are going to do is using social media and gauche ofplaces might be. These are a lot of outdoor jobs might be jobs for veterans, jobs outside to live go to the outdoor sites where they are and we will advertise broadband nation on those sites, attract n about the jobs. They can understand a day in the life of a fiber splicer in topeka for example they might learn about what a career looks like because the industry is aging out yet at the same time growing these are not just shortterm jobs these are longterm careers. Its not the oil pipeline 10 years ago was a goldrush for a gone. E of years and the no, these are longterm careers. Once they come to the sites they learned more about the job and about the careers, the career paths we will link to Community Colleges in that states. Somebody can say i am in this part of the country where diego . You can go on the sites learn about committee college and other Training Programs that are there and thirdly where to go to get a job locally . We can then a link to the jobs that are available in that local area attract, train, deliver all the sameb8 location. How much does a fiber splicer a young man, woman or to go into that career, what is the average salary or income they could expect . These are careers you can start you do not need a fouryear degree. We obviously would traits issue in america as well tomb and people think they have to go to college they come out of college think of the world was at their feet nothing against being a beretta step but they end up being a burst we need people who understand the importance of trade in america that is a big part of what this does. We work with the largest workforce publicly traded has over 30,000 people they work in st states around the country fiber, wireless and build outs other types of infrastructure. They will tell you the png in ts per our soup 24 28 per our with a five year period of time there over 100,000 because they want to become a manager. What is the role that encompass other organizations federal, state, local, the bead program. How can we plug into what you are doing . Do you have curriculum you have developed . I talked to our Member Companies especially fiber, wireless and those deploying to networks. All of them face a workforce shortage. There is a big challenge if we connect every american can we find a workforce to do it . How do we plugin . We have were not trying to recreate the wheel just bring everybody together and solve this problem. I call it a mission for america i was in the marine corps its all about mission i am all about mission. This is really, really important. We have been work with encompass the other trade associations those who have trading programs to bring them into the site make a marriage between Community Colleges that dont have programs and want one. Were not going to tell them what to do at this point were not trying to create a new standard we are trying to make more and more training. Big 10 approach we will eventually move into things like Cyber Security and data centers and things of that sort as well these first five or six job categories are the initial shortage that need to be filled÷ we have been talking to encompass an wia and Fiber Broadband association all of the others and bring them intour su. At some point maybe there will be a need for standardization but that is not phase i. Phase one is to get Training Programs available in every state across the country that meet the needs of the Service Providers people. As we talked to alan talk have in all of government do strategy . On our workforce deeds its in all of government but its very importantly all of industry you laid out the Industry Associations of broadband industry and how do we come together to get a common need in the Common Objective hopefully a curriculum that we can replicate all to the country together to achieve this. I really appreciate your leadership in developing it. Do you have this off . Always a challenge. We are hoping this states will be big supporters of this as we develop state specific pages and described louisiana at work at the number of other states already. We intend to go live it next month with tbhe portals and as time goes on add more and more states but will have a National Level live will have a few states already filled out if yos and Community Colleges listed. Thats a big effort to talk to 20 Community Colleges in every state. We are hoping thats a big piece of it and thirdly we are hosting an expost debate next october here in d. C. A big part of the expo will beat train the a portion can go to program. 9 workforce . Thats right big. They. Thats a big deal. We are not looking for huge is d we are a nonprofit it is a privately funded program we are hoping to get every state servi. Any of you represent workforce i hope you look up tia the portal work with dave and his team. He asked a tremendous team that works with him. This is a needed admission. We appreciate tha a former marine you are at the tip of the spear and we really appreciate this critical work and would love to work and partner with the going forward. Thank you, appreciate it. [applause]