for governance studies and founding director for the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution. Panelists included Amanda Ahlstrand, administrator for the Office of Workforce Investment at the employment and training administration at the Department of Labor; Christopher Bates, chief counsel to Senator Orrin G. Hatch, who is a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Jeremy Robbins, executive director, New American Economy; and Tracey Welson-Rossman, founder and CEO, TechGirlz. Gaining New Skills Panelists began by describing what they are doing to help workers gain news skills. The mission of the Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration, for example, is to provide high quality job training, employment, labor market information and income maintenance services through state and local workforce development systems. DOL also has responsibility for the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant program, designed to increase the ability of community colleges to address today’s workforce challenges. Welson-Rossman, founder of TechGirlz,
talked about the Philadelphia-based nonprofit that provides middle school girls with extracurricular STEM classes and whose mission is to inspire them to explore the possibilities of technology to empower their future careers. “How are we as an industry portraying technology careers?” Welson-Rossman asked. “How do we value smart girls? How do we value those girls who want to be in science and technology? If we lose them in ninth grade we’re not going to get them at the end of college. We need to address the gender divide that exists in the tech sector.” And no discussion of a skilled workforce can be complete without mention of high-skilled immigration. Robbins shared data backing the need for high-skilled immigration while Bates walked the audience through the details of the recently introduced Immigration Innovation Act of 2018 (I-Squared). The bill will help ensure that our companies continue to have access to highly technical, skilled talent for specialized
Brent Parton, deputy director, Center on Education and Skills, New America, speaks on the important role of apprenticeships at the 2018 DC Fly-In.
fields where we have a shortage of American labor. At the same time, it addresses abuses in the H-1B visa program to ensure the program is not used to outsource jobs or undercut American wages. And it provides nearly $1 billion in new funding for STEM education and worker training programs through increases in visa fees. Tool No. 3: Spectrum: The Fuel for 5G and IoT The DC Fly-In Tech Summit moved on to focus on an element of what we often refer to as the pipes for the digital economy – 5G and spectrum – which power today’s digital revolution by providing ubiquitous broadband coverage and capacity. Our second panel delved into spectrum, 5G, the rural/urban digital divide and how to best support IoT. The moderator was Matthew Starr, director, Public Advocacy, CompTIA and panelists included Steve Coran, chair of the Broadband Practice Group at
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CompTIAWorld | SPRING 2018
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