FCC Commissioner
Brendan Carr Visits Learning Alliance Corporation
Tampa, Florida
— July 27, 2021 — Learning Alliance Corporation (LAC), an
organization building stronger workforce development for trades, hosted
Commissioner Brendan Carr of the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) on July 14, 2021. Carr
toured LAC’s campus in Tampa, climbed LAC’s 150-foot training tower with
students, and provided insight on telecom workforce development opportunities
to local executives and workforce board members.
“We wanted to bring awareness to our
local community about the opportunities this industry provides our students,”
said Fred Arnold, LAC Director of Operations. “5G is a gateway to new jobs, and
our students are on the front lines of that technology.”
Carr addressed the
demand for qualified workers to build out the necessary infrastructure. During
his tower climb, Carr experienced a job hazard
analysis, safety briefing, and certification check. Derrick Francis, LAC
Director of Training remarked, “It was refreshing to see how much commissioner Carr cared about what we are doing here at our school, for
our students and the industry as a whole.”
Cesar Ruiz, CEO of Learning Alliance
explained LAC’s “crawl, walk, run methodology.” Before students can get out in
the field, “they need the certifications, the hands-on training and the
opportunity to simulate the tasks they’ll need to complete while 200 feet in
the air.”
LAC provided training station tours to
all in attendance. The group saw areas dedicated to initiatives including
rooftop deployment, weatherproofing, structured cabling from outside plants,
and fiber splicing.
Commissioner Carr
spoke to students about the increased capacity within 5G systems that will lead
to new innovations, “There's not a lot of people that know we have a 20,000 job void and we can fill people almost immediately
and we need to make sure there's the support structure, that there are loan
programs, apprenticeship programs. We're just talking, there's a lot of
decisions going on right now in the state and back in Washington about
infrastructure bills. We need to make sure that we include in that, pathways
for people to get into these types of programs right here. So, I'm really proud
of the work that teachers are doing here and of the LAC organization.”
LAC highlighted emerging training
technology, demonstrating augmented reality use cases and LAC’s training video
game. Arnold explains, “By combining our virtual reality gaming components and Taqtile’s Manifest
software, we have produced a unique way to train and develop our
students.”
“Many of the uses and applications of
5G are unknown to us, but virtual and augmented reality will be a large part of
its growth,” added the Commissioner.
The day wrapped up with discussions
regarding LAC’s partnership with T-Mobile and the NextTech
Diversity Program –
an initiative to help lead underrepresented candidates into the industry.
For a visual overview of Commissioner Carr's visit to LAC, please visit here.
For a visual overview of LAC’s
Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality demonstration, visit here.
# # #
NextTech Diversity
Program
Black professionals make up just 10%
of the telecom industry’s network infrastructure field. With $750,000 in
initial seed funding from T-Mobile and another $150,000 committed from other
telecommunications partners, over the next five years, the NextTech
Diversity Program aims to provide career training and placement for thousands
of diverse candidates to take on roles as 5G network technicians. Telecom trade
school Learning Alliance Corporation will oversee recruitment, training,
certification, and job placement of candidates as they create long-term careers
in roles such as tower climber, 5G small cell and field tech.
About Learning
Alliance Corporation
Learning Alliance Corporation partners
with businesses, colleges, and universities to bring U.S. Veterans and
civilians stronger training initiatives that equate to solid career growth. By
partnering with employers nationwide, Learning Alliance Corporation has created
workshops, labs and simulation programs that align the theoretical concepts
into real world application learning. This adaptable approach creates learning
solutions based on the community specific goals, industry, staff skill level,
and corporate culture. Learning Alliance Corporation provides quality
instructors, who are highly trained and specialize in the areas they teach.
Learn more at https://www.mylearningalliance.com.
About FCC
Commissioner Brendan Carr
Commissioner Brendan Carr is the senior Republican on the Federal Communications
Commission and served previously as the agency’s General Counsel. Commissioner Carr brings over a dozen years of private and public sector
experience in communications and tech policy to his position. Before joining
the agency as a staffer back in 2012, he worked as an attorney at Wiley Rein
LLP in the firm’s appellate, litigation, and telecom practices. He litigated
cases involving the First Amendment and the Communications Act. Previously,
Commissioner Carr clerked on the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for Judge Dennis Shedd. And after attending
Georgetown University for his undergrad, Commissioner Carr
earned his J.D. magna cum laude from the Catholic University of America’s
Columbus School of Law where he served as an editor of the Catholic University
Law Review. Much of Commissioner Carr's work focuses
on expanding America’s skilled workforce—the tower climbers and construction
crews needed to build next-gen networks. His jobs initiative promotes community
colleges and apprenticeships as a pipeline for good-paying 5G jobs. Learn more
at https://www.fcc.gov/about/leadership/brendan-carr.