Meta partners with CBRE to offer free training to fill data center fiber optics technician gap

According to Dynamic Beating monitoring, Meta has partnered with CBRE to launch the LevelUp Fiber Technician Pathway, a free 4-week training program aimed at Americans to supply fiber technicians for their own data center sites and subsequent operational positions. The program is operated by global real estate and critical infrastructure services provider CBRE, with the first batch of students set to start this summer.

The curriculum combines classroom discussions, hands-on experiments, and team exercises, and graduates will be able to enter Meta's U.S. construction sites through Meta's contractor network. Meta currently operates or is constructing 27 data centers in the U.S., with official disclosures stating that these projects have provided over 30,000 construction phase technician positions and over 5,000 permanent operational positions (site managers, engineers, etc.) since 2010.

The U.S. fiber technician, and indeed the entire construction industry, is facing a nationwide shortage, while AI companies and cloud providers' data center projects are at record levels. This time, Meta is directly conducting training to provide skilled workers for its data center expansion.