Abstract for: Ohio’s Broadband and 5G Sector Partnership: a systems approach to bridging workforce gaps

Ohio's statewide industry sector partnership initiative - the Broadband & 5G Sector Partnership - is a novel collaborative approach to building up the workforce needed to support the rapid infrastructure expansion spurred by the federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. Nearly $800 million in funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will support efforts to ensure that all Ohioans have internet access. This systems approach to resolving gaps in the skilled workforce is based on the Regional Industry Sector Partnership (ISP)framework. ISPs have proven to be an effective strategy for addressing the specific needs of other industry sectors, including manufacturing. Now, two years after its inception, the statewide Sector Partnership is being scaled to support regional Nodes (ISPs) in each economic development region of the state. The ultimate purpose of this government, education and industry collaboration between is to meet the workforce demand necessary to expand the broadband infrastructure to deliver equitable internet access for all Ohioans. A causal loop diagram is developed to consider feedback within the overall system that could effect the outcomes of this critical initiative. Future work will include developing a conceptual system dynamics model to simulate policies designed to support Ohio's broadband infrastructure expansion.