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Task force focuses on workforce and strategic partnerships to support broadband buildout
Summary
Task force members and industry speakers described workforce shortages and local training successes; presenters urged apprenticeships, school partnerships and strategic coalitions to recruit and retain fiber technicians as BEAD projects near construction.
Task force members spent the second half of the Nov. 19 meeting examining workforce development and strategic partnerships as priorities for scaling Wisconsin's broadband buildout.
Laurie Collins, co‑founder of SonicNet, described three workforce challenges small regional ISPs face: finding culturally fit candidates for remote communities, recruiting and training locally, and financial constraints that limit wages and benefits. "It's important to pay your staff a good wage," Collins said, and urged paid internships and community college scholarships to build a local pipeline.
Sal of the Latino Academy said the nonprofit runs classroom and hands‑on training — including CDL and OSHA instruction — and serves about 2,000 students a year. "Every single one of the programs we provide also includes computer literacy," Sal said, and warned that changing federal eligibility rules and grant funding cycles affect who can be trained.
Brett Shubner, general manager of the municipally owned Reedsburg Utility Commission (Lightspeed), described success with youth apprenticeships through his local high school and said most apprentices have become permanent employees, with one apprentice now foreman of construction crews. Angie Dickerson, state government affairs manager at TDS Telecom, said TDS lists roughly 55 job openings in Wisconsin for technical roles and recommended expanding telecom education at technical colleges and trade schools.
In breakout rooms, members wrestled with defining a "strategic partnership." The group generally characterized it as a planned, goal‑oriented arrangement with shared investment and sustained engagement — not a one‑off contract. Several breakout reports recommended that the task force act as a facilitator or matchmaker — identifying promising partners (employers, community organizations, workforce boards and colleges) and elevating existing coalitions such as the Wisconsin Broadband Workforce Coalition.
Why it matters: Task force members and providers argued that workforce planning must accompany infrastructure spending. Speakers pointed to internships, youth apprenticeships, local school partnerships and expanded trade programs as practical approaches that already show high conversion to permanent hires.
Next step: Members asked staff to gather examples and contacts and to include workforce and partnership recommendations in the next task force report.
