Workforce Development for Critical Infrastructure

Workforce Development for Critical Infrastructure encompasses training programs, apprenticeships, certification pathways, and educational facilities that build the skilled workforce required to deploy, operate, maintain, and secure broadband networks, telecommunications systems, power grids, and related essential services. This includes fiber splicing technicians, tower climbers, network operations center staff, cybersecurity analysts, GIS mapping specialists, and electrical distribution workers.

The SUCCESS for BEAD Act explicitly authorizes BEAD remaining amounts for workforce development programs "narrowly targeted" to telecommunications, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and electrical distribution sectors. The BEAD NOFO requires Eligible Entities to describe how they will develop sector-based partnerships among employers, training providers, unions, and community organizations to create equitable on-ramps into broadband-related careers paying $50,000-$80,000 annually without requiring four-year degrees.

Critical infrastructure workforce development addresses a fundamental constraint on BEAD deployment: infrastructure cannot be built faster than skilled workers can construct it. Every BEAD subgrantee faces the same workforce bottleneck, making coordinated state investment in training infrastructure a force multiplier for deployment timelines. Training facilities with hands-on lab environments, mobile training units reaching rural communities, and apprenticeship programs guaranteeing employment upon completion create the pipeline of qualified workers that broadband deployment requires.