Charter Commemorates National Apprenticeship Week and Veterans Day With North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis

Charter recently welcomed North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis to our Technical Training & Regional Operations Center in Morrisville, NC to commemorate National Apprenticeship Week and Veterans Day. More than 400 employees in North Carolina are enrolled in the company’s Broadband Field Technician Apprentice program, including 100 military veterans.

Read more about this event on Spectrum News.

Senator Tillis is a strong advocate on behalf of veterans’ issues, having sponsored the 2017 Veteran Apprenticeship and Labor Opportunity Reform (VALOR) Act. The VALOR Act removed a requirement that companies needed to obtain approvals for veteran apprentice programs state by state, and allows a single, more streamlined process.

Veterans make up a valuable part of Charter’s employee workforce, and hiring more veterans and increasing employment opportunities for military spouses is a key part of growing our highly skilled, diverse workforce. Our Broadband Field Technician Apprentice Program is aligned with our broadband technician career progression. When enrollees graduate from the apprentice program, they have an industry-recognized broadband field technician certification that they can carry with them throughout their career. For our veteran employees, the broadband field technician apprentice program provides an additional benefit, as they can collect GI Bill benefits in addition to their regular paycheck that will help smooth their transition to civilian life.

Senator Tillis toured the company’s specialized training center, which offers real world, hands on experience and training working with equipment and scenarios designed to replicate the many different residential and business environments technicians encounter every day on the job. During the tour, Senator Tillis said “I wish every single company, large company, small, midsized company would recognize the benefit of hiring veterans. They are great people, they are disciplined, they served their nation, and this sort of program –I want to go up and down the street and see this sort of program. I really just appreciate Spectrum being on the leading edge.”

Charter’s apprentice program is an important part of the company’s ongoing prioritization of workforce development, which helps us attract and train the highly-skilled diverse workforce we need to best serve our customers and deliver the next generation of technical solutions to them.