Photonics and the Future Workforce
Support Universities & Researchers
Colorado has exciting research going on at 8 university campuses. Most graduates of PhD programs in photonics stay in Colorado. Post-Docs that work with JILA have started or grown many Colorado companies. The CPIA Annual Meeting focuses on helping this effort develop key technical workers by encouraging companies to work with professors and by a very interesting student poster contest. 2008 ANNUAL MEETING
Improve the Current Work Force
CPIA has teamed with CAPT Center and UC-Denver to offer short courses. CPIA also supports member companies that present educational seminars and demonstrations.
Technical Training
As companies grow, there will be a larger need for technician level workers. Currently many Colorado companies either fully train these people themselves, import trained workers from overseas, or use engineers with four year degrees to do technician level work. CPIA is active on working to develop more education with the community colleges.
STEM Education
Long term, it is critical to the photonics industry to have children grow up to be interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) - at all levels of training and education. CPIA participates in efforts to help this.
