Fiber Technician Apprenticeship Program

Fiber Technician

Apprentice Program

In collaboration with The Rural Fiber Association, Fiber Broadband Association and S&N Communications, the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives is excited to offer instruction for fiber technicians actively working and seeking to develop their skills and obtain industry certification.

CREDENTIALING

FBA OpTIC Path Certification

The Fiber Broadband Association OpTIC certification was developed by the major stakeholders who created and grew the fiber industry. They saw a need for a qualified workforce to enable the unprecedented broadband funding and implementation to be successful. To help create a well-trained workforce to properly install and maintain the networks, a highly trusted and respected certification program was developed. The FBA OpTIC Path program has garnered nationwide and industry-wide acceptance. Several factors make this certification able to be trusted by network operators and employers.

Specific relevance to needed skills
Repetition and stacking of skills
Cross relevance between classroom knowledge and hands-on application
Career-long learning and growth

Class content is carefully geared to specific skills needed to operate and maintain a fiber-optic plant, regardless of manufacturer(s) or topology. Along with the FBA OpTIC Path certification, participants are provided first-aid, OSHA-10 and power-space safety topics, as well as skills to be successful in the network operating environment. The course is vendor-neutral in terms of materials, tooling and topologies. Skills learned will apply and be relevant in all fiber-optic environments. Classes are designed to culminate in FBA OpTIC certification, but technicians will receive immediate benefit from each class, which can be applied to their daily work.

First quarter 2023
Potential pilot class fall quarter 2022
The full course to achieve OpTIC Path certification is 120 contact hours. Majority of time is hands-on, a substantial amount which can be achieved through on-jobsite training. In order to gear the course to working technicians, the course has been paced across multiple sessions, rather than a single start-to-finish offering. Several advantages are included.

Flexibility for technicians and their schedules
Immediate relevance of content learned as it is applied in technicians’ daily work
Strengthened mix of knowledge and hands-on
Jobsite interaction between experienced and entry level technicians
Allows technicians to bring questions back to class as they have implemented learned knowledge
Reinforces the career-long intent of this learning model

This class represents the beginning of a long-term investment in technician training and craftsmanship. Completion of the OpTIC Path certification is a priority, but the goal is to continue offering in-service topics and best practices for career-long opportunities for growth.

Staff Page Training & Events Job Comp Forms Mobile Test Lab Rubber Test Goods

Curriculum

Safety Skills

Personal safety equipment and training
Introductory training mandatory by apprenticeship partner
Fiber handling
Personal protection equipment
Cable-stripping tool
Fiber and shard handling
Eye protection
MSDS review
Construction and building codes
Flame retardancy of various materials

Cable Preparation

Trunk cables – shielded vs. all-dielectric
Loose tube and ADSS
Micro cables
Central tube ribbon
Central tube partially bonded ribbon
Loose tube ribbon
Loose tube partially bonded ribbon
Drop cables (dielectric and grounded, tonable vs. non-tonable)
Flat drop
Round drop
Pushable
Indoor cables

Fiber-optic Terminal, Pedestal, Closure Prep

Identify terminal and closures for different applications
Demonstration the following skills in the following closure types – randomly chosen manufacturer products
Mid-span closure, butt splice closure, wall-mount enclosure, rack mounted enclosure, terminal, pedestals
Tube routing and preparation
Window cutting
Bare fiber routing
Flat ribbon routing
Partially bonded ribbon routing
Sealing
Central member security
Final assembly
Grounding
Labeling and documentation
Accessory selection for a given closure type and application
Closure and terminal troubleshooting and testing
High fiber count cable splicing (>432)

Customer Installation

Drop to the home
Recognize common drops to the home
Understand differences in fiber types typically used to and in the home
Equipment in the home
Install outdoor ONTs, outdoor NIDs, indoor ONTs
Familiarization with MDU install methods
Fiber in the home
Install fiber around and in the home
Powering in the home
Battery backup wiring
Outdoor and indoor versions
Wireless
Common wireless troubleshooting?

Technical Skills, Intro to Fiber

Articulate why FTTH is a preferred medium vs. metal cables and wireless
- Bandwith
- Attenuation
- OpEx
- Reliability
Identify what types of fibers are typically used in different FTTH types
- Truck and distribution
- Home and MDU
Articulate how to tell the difference between fiber and cable types in the field
Discuss how fiber geometry affects splice loss
Articulate why different cable types are used in different environments
Articulate differences between network architectures

Fiber Testing

Complete optical budget for sample backhaul and PON systems
Identify expected optical power available at a given location
Understand how to use all below
OTDR, proper setup and use, including software packages
Identify lengths
Light source / Power Meter
Fiber Identifier
Visual Fault Locator
What goes wrong?
Identify common installation issues
Identify OTDR traces associated with various problems
Troubleshooting exercises
Breaks
Microbends
Macrobends
Ghosts
Gainers
Additional OTDR exercises
Setup using launch box
Pulse width exercises
Testing through splitters
Testing at OLTs and ONTs
Schedule review with test eq vendors

CREDENTIALING

FBA OpTIC Path Certification

Relevance

Schedule & Pacing

Flexibility

Safety Skills