BroadbandCareers.Com and Women in Cable & Telecommunications are forming a partnership designed to help women move up the job ladder in the telecommunications field.
The partnership could help women who work in cable installation jobs, even though this is still a relatively low percentage of the total industry workforce.
"We can give them a higher degree of visibility within their industry," says Mark Clancey, president and director of business development for BroadbandCareers.Com based in San Juan Capistrano, CA.
The Chicago-based Women in Cable & Telecommunications (WICT) has 23 chapters that provide leadership courses. WICT is, for example, forming an executive coaching and method program that will be launched next year. The program is designed to help female telecom professionals work with each other in mentoring roles.
BroadbandCareers.Com focuses specifically on the telecommunications industry. It is designed to enable professionals to target their career search while providing employers with a more efficient, cost-effective resource to fill key positions. By using the Broadband Careers Network, employers can feature their brands, company profiles and recruitment campaigns.
According to the new agreement, BroadbandCareers.Com will power the WICT Career Center. The new center will give WICT members access to expanded profiles on some 9000 companies. It will allow them to highlight their resumes and present it before potential employers.
Emily Lang, director of membership and chapter services for WICT (www.wict.org), says the system is designed to help women obtain management positions. "The (telecommunications) industry has a lot of women in it, but the problem that women face is that they are not represented at the upper level," says Lang. "That is where the progress really needs to be made."
Lang says that, admittedly, only a small portion of WICT's membership consists of cable installers. The industry is, to a large extent, dominated by males. But she says it wasn't always this way.
"Twenty years ago, there were a lot of cable pioneers," says Lang. "There were some significant women cable pioneers who started out; they would be out there stringing cable. But the work has changed, and women's roles have changed with it."
Lang says today, for the most part, women in the telecommunications industry tend to go into more traditional areas. These could include marketing and sales. But Clancey says it doesn't have to be this way: "It has been the case on the installation and construction side that there are no women; however, there have been so many strides with technology when it comes to the convergence of voice video and data on network, that they should consider being involved."
Lang agrees that female cable installers could use the center to find job advancement. She says the new partnership is important, since many of WICT's members now use the Internet for job searching.
"One hundred percent of our membership goes online in job searching, so that is why this new partnership with Broadbandcareers.Com is so important to us," says Lang. "It's really an enhancement, and will provide them with multiple resources."
Omissions and additions
In the September issue article, "Easing network upgrading with air-blown fiber" (page 17), an incorrect Web address was given for American Access. For more information on the company, please visit www.aatk.com
The table accompanying the September issue's Product Update, "Cable support equipment hangs in there" (page 47), should have included two additional companies that provide computer- and Web-based services:
- Advantage Career Training (www.advantagecareertraining.com) provides live Web study courses on copper and optical-fiber cabling systems, as well as system design and installation. Advantage also offers live instructor-led training.
- Agilent Technologies (www.agilent.com/comms/wbt) provides self-paced Web study, live Web study, and self-paced instruction via software. Agilent's courses cover copper and optical-fiber cabling systems, as well as system installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting. The company also offers live instructor-led training.
