Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1219491
April/May/June 2020 I 61 Organization BICSI BICSI Installer 1 (INST1); BICSI Installer 2, Copper (INSTC); BICSI Installer 2, Optical Fiber (INSTF); BICSI Technician (TECH); Registered Communications Distribution Designer (RCDD); Data Center Design Consultant (DCDC); Registered Telecommunications Project Manager (RTPM); Outside Plant (OSP) Designer. (DOD requires BICSI RCDD certification). Electronics Technician Association, International (ETAI) Telecommunications (TCM), Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS), Wireless Communications (WCM), CSS (Customer Service Specialist) and more. National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies (NICET) Fire Alarm Certifications I, II, III, & IV, Video Security Systems Technician and more. CNet Training Corporation Certified Network Cable Installer (CNCI), Certified Network Infrastructure Technician (CNIT), Certified Network Infrastructure Design Professional (CNIDP) and more. Fiber Optic Association (FOA) Certified Fiber Optic Technician (CFOT), Certified Premises Cabling Technician (CPCT), Outside Plant Installation (CFOS/O) and more. Certifications Offered TABLE 2: Widely accepted ICT certifications. of working at CC&N, you're eligible to participate in the employee stock ownership plan, which is 100 percent funded by the company. So the smarter we work, the more valuable we become as an organization. The bigger we become, the more our potential retirement accounts are going to be. We still have 401k, but the Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP) over the last couple of years has made things like the Dow, the Nasdaq, S&P 500 pale in comparison." Rob Freiboth, CC&N's director of field resources adds, "Once our employees have been with us for three, four, five, six years and they start to see what that benefit is, there's a good chance they're going to stick with us." However, most companies do not have ESOP options to help attract workers. Even if they did, the fact of the matter is that no one is seeing long lines of people wait- ing to get into the industry that is largely considered invisible. Add to that a talent gap that is widening due to the increasing complexity of network technology, and what could equate to an issue far bigger than the industry itself emerges. As a key enabler of productivity for providers of prod- ucts and services, a shortage of ICT workers could have a significant impact on economic growth and global com- petitiveness. That is a lot of weight on the shoulders of one industry, and it begs the question: Where does the responsibility lie for attracting, educating, training, and upskilling talent to this industry that is now at the base of network infrastructure and pretty much everything ICT professionals do? Telecom and ICT companies? Gov- ernment? Private sources? Universities? Accreditation programs (Table 2)? Trade unions? High Schools? Techni- cal schools? The industry itself? Recruiting agencies? Most likely, it is a concerted effort by a variety of entities. BICSI, for example, reaches out to both U.S. and international colleges and universities to allow students to become more familiar with the ICT industry and its opportunities. In the U.S., BICSI continues to host many