Bridging Puerto Rico's Digital Divide

The Obstacle

Puerto Rico’s longstanding economic and infrastructure challenges, compounded by natural disasters and the pandemic, have contributed to a deep digital imbalance. In 2022, only 52% of households in Puerto Rico had wired broadband (cable, fiber optic, or DSL), while only 51% had a desktop or laptop, limiting access to education and health care services. This divide not only affects the most disadvantaged populations but risks exacerbating the growing wedge between Puerto Rican communities with and without connectivity.

Puerto Rico’s Broadband Program (PRBP) is investing approximately one billion dollars in federal and state funding over the next five years to improve Puerto Rico’s broadband connectivity and digital equity. This funding will support dozens of infrastructure and other related projects, including for submarine cables, middle-mile broadband infrastructure, and public Wi-Fi. To ensure success, however, the government must move quickly to not only design these projects but build the skilled broadband workforce needed to deliver them. Specifically, it needs to inspire and train new broadband workers—both to fill talent gaps in the short term and to create a sustainable broadband workforce in the longer term. If the workforce is not ready in time, the opportunity to develop this essential infrastructure could be lost.

As the work began, Puerto Rico faced critical challenges in workforce development, including:

• Limited information about the size of the challenge and key roles and skills needed to sustain the broadband industry in the future
• A scarcity of short-form programs to facilitate rapid workforce growth
• A disconnect between the training offered by educational institutions and the industry’s needs
• A limited awareness of broadband career opportunities

The perception that the industry is not an attractive place to work
The leadership of Michelle Cabiya, executive director of PRBP, has been key to addressing these challenges. Her robust background in project management and experience both in the government and in the broadband sector has helped her hit the ground running, ensuring the program uses rigorous and tailored tools and approaches.

Our Approach

Cabiya and her team have quickly responded to the challenges, working with BCG to help close the workforce gap and create well-informed policies to support the program’s new broadband workforce initiatives. The effort began by identifying, in alignment with industry objectives, more than 2,500 roles that the island needed to fill over the next few years—more than doubling the existing broadband workforce. Together with Cabiya and a long list of collaborators, BCG then launched a program to develop specialized training and career pathways and generate better preparedness and technical expertise among the growing broadband workforce—all of which will lead to greater job performance, job satisfaction, and retention rates.

BCG defined six initiatives to prepare that workforce:

• Development and revision of existing broadband curriculums for Puerto Rico’s public high school career and technical education programs
• Development and revision of one- to two-year broadband programs with the Instituto Tecnológico de Puerto Rico
• Investment in six local universities to develop short-form and degree-seeking broadband programs, as well as broader marketing efforts for students
• Introduction of retention bonuses for new professionals joining internet service providers (ISPs)
• Development of apprenticeship programs for the incumbent workforce to ensure that employees have the appropriate skills and credentials for key positions
• Creation of a marketing campaign with a network of five local community organizations to attract students and job seekers and boost the reach and impact of the other five initiatives

To pursue these initiatives, BCG and the PRBP team coordinated with dozens of potential partners and multiple government agencies, eventually selecting and funding 25 organizations across ISPs, training providers, and community-based organizations to ensure that training and incentive programs are developed, and the industry can meet its workforce needs and targets.

Collaboration with these stakeholders and the community has been, and will continue to be, essential to the project’s success. At the onset of the project, the BCG-PRBP team ran focus groups in schools and universities exposing students to newly available careers as broadband technicians, tower climbers, network engineers, fiber splicers, and customer service specialists, with the potential for good compensation and career mobility. The team also engaged directly with educational and industry experts to help shape the suite of programs. As Cabiya noted, "We developed this program so that students understand that there are great opportunities in the industry and that a career in high-speed internet is possible."

Now, the government’s new community awareness campaign seeks to generate substantial public interest, including a marketing campaign called Puerto Rico Está Pa' Tí (Puerto Rico is for You), telling the public it can play a role in Puerto Rico’s future. The campaign will be amplified by the chosen community “champions” that are engaged across key regions on the island, spreading the word and driving on-the-ground engagement. In addition, the broadband industry will continue to inform education programs in order to ensure alignment with its needs as well as developing apprenticeship programs and increasing the value proposition for new employees through retention bonuses.

Other relevant government agencies have helped coordinate solutions as well, including the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, the Department of Education (DoE), the Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Service, and the Department of Labor. In particular, the DoE has been a key collaborator with Puerto Rico’s educational institutions, committing to train professors in the latest industry trends, acquire cutting-edge materials and equipment for the classroom, and update curriculums in collaboration with the industry.

The Result

As a result of this work, the Puerto Rican government has been able to launch and manage an efficient broadband workforce-development program in collaboration with partners across the education, industry, and community spectrums. Thousands of students are being engaged in marketing and awareness events, such as job fairs and targeted campaigns. By the end of the first year of the program, PRBP estimates around 300 new and existing employees will be part of the apprenticeship and retention bonus efforts. Broadband programs at career and technical education institutes and universities should reach thousands of students within the next four years.

Most important, the island now has a strong set of initiatives in place to improve access to broadband education and careers, bolster short- and medium-term workforce readiness and technical expertise, improve hiring and retention, and kick-start a long-term increase in employment rates in broadband-related roles.

The success of such initiatives can be seen in early stakeholder reactions. In one example, the CEO of a leading Puerto Rican ISP noted, "It was very smart for the program to start these workforce initiatives in collaboration with industry players. They will help us train and recruit talent that will be much needed in the future."

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