Experts Say Wireless Industry Faces Big Workforce Training Challenge
The wireless industry faces a significant challenge training the workforce needed for open radio access networks, 5G, 6G and beyond, experts said Tuesday during an RCR wireless webinar. The industry is becoming increasingly competitive and carriers are having to pay…
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“top dollar for top talent” to hire the staff they need, said Shirish Nagaraj, Corning chief technologist. With the transition from earlier Gs to 5G, things are happening “on a much faster timescale,” Nagaraj said. “Networks are getting deployed faster” and industry has to “do more with less,” he said. Staffers need new skill sets like managing the cloud, system integration and working with fiber, he said. Workers need training to make sure they’re focused on“cutting-edge technologies, on new innovations that are leading edge, and it makes for very interesting work," Nagaraj said. Industry needs to cross-train staff and break down “silos,” he said. Corning projects a need for 850,000 fiber technicians this decade, “so this in a tall ask that we have to fill,” he said. Corning has launched two training programs, a fiber broadband technician training working with AT&T, and a registered apprenticeship program, working with the Wireless Infrastructure Association, he said. “There’s a massive, inevitable momentum already happening in the need for secure networks to be built,” said Vishal Mathur, Telecom Infra Project global head-engagement: “We’re driving toward a whole new agenda here in the industry and there’s economic value to chase after.” Governments are driving change, as they seek supply chain diversity and more security in the way networks are built, he said. There has been lots of “proving” and testing of new networks, like those built using ORAN technologies, Mathur said. “Actual deployment” is happening, he said. With ORAN, open-optical and open-Wi-Fi networks “we need more people who understand the product set, understand how to integrate it and test it, understand how to procure it in a multivendor environment,” he said. The move from a single vendor network to multiple vendors requires workers with a “fundamental understanding of what builds up the solutions stack from a technology perspective,” he said. “That’s who we’ve designed fundamental training at the common layer for everyone,” he said. Network and test engineers, and operations staff “need to speak in the same taxonomy and need to understand exactly the same glossary of terms,” he said.