President Joe Biden on Wednesday will highlight an ongoing effort to build and train a large infrastructure workforce, in coordination with colleges, unions, local governments, major companies, charities and more — with a special focus on broadband internet, construction and electrification.
The Biden administration launched a challenge in June to those groups to create more technical career pathways, expand skills training and open up more union jobs. All of it is meant to support the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law over the next five years and beyond, as well as the CHIPS and Science Act, which makes investments in semiconductor manufacturing.
The president Wednesday afternoon will tour workforce training demonstrations at the White House, observing things like fiber cable splicing for broadband and bricklayers’ technique for creating the structures needed for building foundations, dams and walls.
Biden is expected to point to new commitments from groups around the country, such as national union IBEW’s goal to train 12,500 people to install electric vehicle chargers, or a new apprenticeship from United Airlines and the Teamsters to train 1,000 aviation technicians by 2026.
Equity is a key focus of the effort, too. At least half of the technicians in the United program will be women and people of color, according to a White House fact sheet.
Recently growing immigrant populations are also in mind: the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) and Welcome.US are identifying pilot sites for Afghan and Ukrainian newcomers with trade skills to get training, enabling them to work on infrastructure projects.
On the administration’s part, the Department of Transportation just released a checklist on workforce planning for the $125 billion in competitive grants it is awarding under the infrastructure law, to help applicants develop plans for training and equity in their applications.
The Department of Commerce released its Internet for All Workforce Planning Guide, which helps states and territories develop a workforce plan as required by the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.
More than 35 community and technical colleges are participating, the White House said.
Wisconsin’s Northwood Technical College and the Rural Broadband Association, for example, are partnering to develop training programs through which students go to school online and get on-the-job work experience with hundreds of NTCA rural broadband providers, earning proficiency badges.
