Workforce Development: A Two-Pronged Approach
Office of MinorityBroadband Initiatives
Founded in 1946 and designated as a Native American-Serving, Nontribal Institution (NASNTI), Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology (OSUIT) is located in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. In this rural community, over 90% of OSUIT students qualify for financial assistance. OSUIT’s Student Success and Increasing Minority Workforce Participation Program exemplifies an innovative two-pronged approach to increase the skills for a place-based workforce. The program both increases access to broadband by providing hotspots to eligible individuals and increases the talent pipeline for Oklahoma’s telecommunications industry through an Advanced Fiber Technician Training program. At the time of this report, OSUIT has distributed 92 hotspots and 30 individuals completed the training program. This innovative approach will both address the lack of availability of broadband services and increase the talent pipeline of cyber professionals and broadband technicians within Oklahoma’s broadband industry.
These efforts are making strides toward a significant positive impact on the communities they serve. The CMC Pilot Program grantees are applying their efforts to close the digital divide by improving workforce development, telehealth, broadband adoption, cybersecurity, economic empowerment, digital skills and digital literacy training. The connectivity created through these projects also includes outreach to veterans, seniors, and other vulnerable populations.
Supporting CMC Grantees through the CMC Learning Network
OMBI is applying its technical assistance acumen to build the CMC Learning Network (CMC-LN), a cohort of the 93 CMC primary grant recipients. OMBI’s CMC-LN is part of NTIA Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth’s (OICG) learning and sharing community focused on developing a trusted and collaborative environment that promotes learning, which is critical to generate new ideas and dialogue that are not traditional, but innovative.
Developing environments where CMC recipients, subrecipients, and project partners can collaborate in a trusted supportive environment, without the fear of failing, allows for creativity and innovation to flourish. Building a collection of partnerships among CMC stakeholders is critical to catalyze innovative community-driven solutions and overcome the barriers to broadband access, while advancing digital equity.
The CMC-LN provides timely information to support CMC program compliance and success as well as creates a platform for peer learning across CMC programs. Through the CMC-LN, OMBI identifies and highlights promising practices; facilitates communications among CMC grant recipients, federal agencies, and partners; and promotes a mutual learning experience.
OMBI hosts regular “Meet & Share” webinars for the CMC-LN. During these sessions, a subset of grantees has the opportunity to give a brief, five-minute lightning talk about their program and any key insights. The sessions include time for Q&A and discussion. These sessions are open only to the CMC grantees to give them the opportunity to honestly reflect on the opportunities, challenges, barriers, and lessons learned through implementing their programs. In addition to these opportunities for peer learning, OMBI leverages the CMC-LN to provide technical assistance to the grantees and their partners on grants administration, oversight and programmatic topics through webinars and office hours.