How community colleges are evolving to fill local data center jobs
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Community colleges are often charged with training students for the jobs that already exist in their communities. But what if the jobs that need filling are at a data center?
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Community colleges often train people for local jobs. In Las Vegas, that could mean repairing slot machines. In the Florida Keys, it could mean underwater photography. Right now, in northeast Louisiana, it means learning to build and maintain data centers. It is a polarizing industry to be investing in. A recent Gallup poll shows that most Americans do not want data centers built near their homes. But as Aubri Juhasz of the Gulf States Newsroom reports, one Louisiana community college is looking for a way to help its students benefit from the AI boom.
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FLETCH BATCHELOR: I'm going to pass around some safety glasses.
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AUBRI JUHASZ, BYLINE: Fletch Batchelor is teaching students how to strip fiber-optic cable. That's how data travels - as pulses of light. Each strand is barely thicker than a human hair.
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BATCHELOR: And this takes a little practice, guys.
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JUHASZ: At Louisiana Delta Community College in Monroe, about a dozen students are training to become data center technicians. Batchelor shows them how to strip the fiber's protective outer layers so one strand can be sliced to another, end to end.
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BATCHELOR: Once you do strip that fiber, just be real careful with it. Don't stab yourself into the hand, OK?
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SHANAE WILLIAMS: I almost got it. (Laughter) Look.
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JUHASZ: Shanae Williams, a 35-year-old mom of four, gives it a try.
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JUHASZ: She cuts through her strand instead of stripping it.
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WILLIAMS: I'm going to try one more time. I think you got to be real gentle.
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JUHASZ: Williams is a certified nursing assistant, works the night shift and is still in her scrubs.
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WILLIAMS: I'm just getting to the point where I want to try something else.
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JUHASZ: After more than a decade, she only makes 16.25 an hour. Installing fiber, she could start at $20 an hour or a lot more.
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WILLIAMS: This is something I can see doing 'cause it's hands-on.
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JUHASZ: Local businesses often rely on community colleges to provide the training people need to work for them. In northeast Louisiana, the biggest business right now is Meta. The tech giant is building its largest data center here, and it needs thousands of workers.
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DAN MCCARTY: When a business comes to us and says, we need people to work here, we will turn around and say, well, what skills do they need?
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JUHASZ: Dan McCarty is Delta's director of trade programs. Last year, Meta approached them looking to partner up. That's how McCarty ended up creating two new credential programs - one for data center techs and another in construction - geared toward the Meta site. Both are just four weeks long. Meta and its contractors helped the school purchase equipment and provided training for instructors.
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MCCARTY: We had instructors that knew fiber but maybe not the specific type of fiber that was needed for a data center.
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JUHASZ: The tech giant also promised $5 million in scholarships to help students take data center-related courses. Across the country, there's a growing backlash against data centers. Many local governments are pausing new construction amid concerns over their impact on the environment, utilities and more. But multiple projects are planned in Louisiana, where some residents are upset. They didn't get a say in whether data centers would be built near their homes. McCarty, with Delta, is focused on the positive.
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MCCARTY: We're not going to go tear it down. So as long as it's here, let's make the best of it. Let's grow with this, if we can, and look at the success stories that we're seeing.
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JUHASZ: That includes jobs - something that's been in short supply here for decades. More than a hundred people have graduated from Delta's new program since January. All of them are working, McCarty says, and some are making life-changing money. Marcus Jackson wants in.
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MARCUS JACKSON: And it's like, wow, this is here. It is huge.
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JUHASZ: Jackson is 20 years old, the youngest student in Delta's data tech class. He's also working on an associate's degree in IT. He hopes it will give him a chance to stick around at Meta after the construction wraps in about a decade and most of the jobs go away.
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JACKSON: It's going to be my entry-level plan. It'll help me get my foot in the door.
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JUHASZ: Before, he thought he might have to leave home to find work. It's a common story in Louisiana. But with the Meta site just 30 minutes away...
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JACKSON: It makes me kind of want to do stay at home, knowing that I'm going to be set. And I think everyone's same goal is just to make sure that they're stable with a good income.
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BATCHELOR: They don't have to go off to work on a pipeline. They don't have to go off to work on the river.
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JUHASZ: Fletch Batchelor, Jackson's teacher, knows what it's like to have to leave home for a job. He worked in fiber for years on projects mostly outside the state.
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BATCHELOR: I'm speaking from experience when I say that this is a real blessing for our community to have right now.
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JUHASZ: But the new technology also brings uncertainty.
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BATCHELOR: Smartphones were just the beginning. Now we have to have somewhere to support all of that, and that's where you all come in.
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JUHASZ: When I visited Batchelor's class, a student asked a complicated question. By helping to power AI, are we killing our own jobs? Won't a machine be able to do this work? Batchelor assured them that whatever happens, fiber is the future of energy, communication. Your trade, he said - there's always going to be a demand for it, one way or another.
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For NPR News, I'm Aubri Juhasz in Monroe, Louisiana.
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