SKILLS GROWTH
THE IMPORTANCE OF DOCUMENTING
YOUR SKILLS GROWTH
Being certified in the communication industry is becoming
more important than ever. The need to have skilled workers is
becoming critical as the communication industry continues to
explode. Additionally, many “old timers” with Journeyman skills
are retiring while the explosive implementation of fiber optics
continues. Documenting your skills growth is key to measuring
your growth, knowledge and skills. The following article and
Cable Form are a few examples of many that we will introduce
and review in future issues.
For those looking for a job, or to add weight on a resume, the
skills sheets are used to show the various disciplines and product
knowledge. While resumes show employment history, they offer
little details on a technician’s actual abilities and knowledge.
Another benefit of using skills worksheets are how they can be
used to monitor your skills and knowledge over time.
Let’s take a look at how these can be used by a technician. In
any skill, one performs a myriad of multiple tasks. By using the
form, you would fill out (pencil is best) based on what you know
and what tasks you have performed. For example, a technician
who mostly performed Inside Plant (ISP) tasks would use
different cable structures and termination techniques than those
working in the Outside Plant (OSP). Therefore, the ratings should
be higher on indoor vs outdoor cable types and associated tasks.
As a technician, you should periodically review and update
the forms so they represent how you have progressed in your
career. There is no perfect candidate. An example would be, if
you worked in high voltage utility applications, you would have
much more experience with OPGW (optical power ground wire)
and ADSS (all dielectric self-supporting cable) cables but have
limited experience with indoor distribution cables.
The skill forms are structured with the top horizontal columns
identifying the roles and/or tasks associated with the various
products listed vertically on the left side. The person filling these
out, fills in ratings raging from 0-6 as follows;
Strengths are identified ranging from 0-6.
0 None
1 Familiar
2 Apprentice
3 Competent
4 Advanced
5 Expert
6 Not applicable
6 | highTECH NEWS | MAY/JUNE 2022
The grading can be voluntary or qualifying. Most of the time,
we let the candidates fill out the form voluntarily, and then we
review the content as applicable for the roles in which we are
looking to fill. It’s best to be honest as very specific questions can
be asked by those interviewing the candidate.
In my own experience as founder of Light Brigade, we used
these forms to evaluate the skills, knowledge and background
of candidates interviewing for instructor or technician jobs.
They allowed our staff to delve deeper into tasks and product
knowledge of possible candidates. As an example, I once had a
person mark themselves as an expert in grounding distribution
cables, which is a dielectric cable and does not require grounding.
He wasn’t hired!
These worksheets are not based on specific manufacturers. It
is at the user’s discretion to expand the responses or to use blank
spaces to include specific products, models, or part numbers, or
to add in additional comments.
Developed originally as the “Photonics Skill Standard” by the
Center of Occupational Research and Development (CORD)
in the 1990s, I recently updated the forms to bring them up to
current products and associated disciplines. In future articles,
we will cover how individual work sheets can be used to identify
skills and knowledge based on disciplines.
Written By: Larry Johnson