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May 2003 Issue

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By John Clark, President and CEO, SCTE

Operación Español Targets Growing Member Needs

Lea este artículo en español en el Web site de SCTE en www.scte.org, bajo Operación Español.

In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the nation's Hispanic population had risen 58 percent since the 1990 census, with over 30 million people of Hispanic origin currently residing in the United States. It also reported that this group is the fastest growing segment in the country. This rapid growth is expected to continue through at least 2050.

With this trend in mind, in 2002 SCTE introduced Operación Español--a workforce development and diversity program targeted to Spanish-speaking technical professionals within the industry.

The goal of Operación Español is to expand training, certification, professional development and promotion opportunities for installers, technicians and engineers whose first language is Spanish. Initially, the program kicked off with SCTE offering our monthly newsletter, Interval, in Spanish online. Then, we added a Spanish language speakers' bureau to our resources and offered simultaneous interpretation in Spanish for several educational opportunities at last year's Cable-Tec Expo and Annual Engineering Conference. In addition to these efforts, SCTE also offers a growing number of select technical manuals, guides and books in Spanish in our bookstore.

When the Society launched its revamped Web site, we included new sections in Spanish featuring technical resources, information and Society news, plus a section devoted to educating our members about Operación Español. To facilitate knowledge-sharing and networking among Spanish-speakers, in January the Society initiated a Spanish-language listserv modeled after the SCTE-List which touts 1,200 English-speaking subscribers from around the globe.

Most recently, the Society was awarded a grant from the Walter Kaitz Foundation that will enable us to develop a Spanish-language version of SCTE's Broadband Premises Specialist certification (BPS). Information gathered on bilingualism shows that Spanish-speaking individuals may be conversational in English, but they often study and test better in Spanish. By providing the BPS certification study materials and exam in Spanish, this growing minority segment will have an equal opportunity to earn an industry-recognized professional designation that positions them for increased employment opportunities and earnings.

Once the BPS certification testing system in Spanish is complete, we will expand our Spanish testing to include the Broadband Distribution Specialist (BDS), Broadband Transport Specialist (BTS) and Broadband TelecomCenter Specialist (BTSC) certifications.

At Expo 2003 (May 11-14), we again plan to offer Spanish translation for our Annual Engineering Conference and three workshops: Tactics for Preparing Your Network for Voice; VOD: Let's Get the Network Ready to Rumble; and RF Troubleshooting in Modern HFC Networks. On June 8 at the NCTA Show in Chicago, SCTE will host a technology update in Spanish.

Plans are underway to offer additional Spanish-language resources to foster diversity and facilitate the professional development of front-line, technical personnel whose first language is Spanish.

For more information about Operación Español, visit our Web site at www.scte.org or call . Para más información acerca de Operación Español, visite nuestro Web site en www.scte.org o llamar al .

John Clark is president and CEO of SCTE. He may be reached at .

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