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Next Step Program Mission, Goals, Objectives, and Description

Mission of the Program

The mission of the Next Step Program is to provide an innovative, educational, skills-based program that will enable employees to stay apace with advancing technology, to understand changing marketplace realities, and to enhance customer service skills through the acquisition of an Associate Degree in Applied Science with a focus on Telecommunications Technology.

Goals of the Program

  • Develop a workforce with a broad understanding of the telecommunications field.
  • Develop a workforce with the ability to understand and implement current and emerging technologies as they relate to Verizon and its customers.
  • Develop an empowered, technologically competent, customer-accountable work force that is committed to the value of lifelong learning.  
  • Develop a workforce with an understanding of the workplace skills required in the modern business environment.
  • Increase awareness and understanding of the impact of globalization on business and the workforce.
  • Cultivate independent-thinking, problem-solving workers who can work effectively both in teams and on their own.  
  • Develop the general education and practical skills necessary to think, to feel, and to act competently in a complex, diverse, and constantly changing world.   

Objectives of the Program

Graduates of the Next Step Telecommunications Technology Program will demonstrate:

  • Competency in telecommunications technology principles and services.
  • Competency in electrical systems.   
  • Competency in problem solving processes that are prevalent in all telecommunications technology related projects.
  • Competency in installing, maintaining, troubleshooting and repairing telecommunication and telecommunications enabled systems and services.   
  • Competency in telecommunication transmission systems, including fiber optics, local and wide area networks, and wireless communications.
  • Competency in converged network systems used to transmit voice, video and data over the same transmission medium.
  • Understanding of the seven-layer OSI model.
  • Understanding of higher level protocols including the TCP/IP protocol suite as it applies to Verizon's core business.
  • Competency in computer hardware, operating systems and software applications.
  • Competency in workplace skills, including team building, project leadership, problem Solving, customer focus, technology and service delivery, and quality.
  • Ability to write coherently, conduct research, and engage proficiently in oral discourse.
  • Understanding of the history and development of the labor movement including current issues and future perspectives.
  • Understanding of the interplay of technology, work and society.  

Program Description
The Next Step Telecommunications Technology program has been designed to meet the combined requirements of the Verizon Corporation, the Communication Workers of America (CWA), and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). This 60 credit degree offering is scheduled and sequenced to be completed over a four-year period. The student-employees attend class one day per week. As a corporate and union specific program, only Verizon employees represented by CWA or IBEW are eligible. Verizon contracts with Hudson Valley Community College and Springfield Technical Community College to oversee the academic administration of the Program at 15 colleges in New York and 10 colleges in New England, respectively.

Next Step is a competency-based associate degree program geared to today's rapidly changing marketplace and advancing technologies in the telecommunications field. Among the goals of the Program are the development of a broad understanding of the ever-changing telecommunications field, an appreciation of lifelong learning, and the development of competencies and skill sets that strengthen on-the-job effectiveness. These include skills that foster both professional and personal success such as teamwork and team building, leadership, critical thinking and problem solving, quality and customer focus, and technology and service delivery. Notebook computers are provided to the students and are an integral part of the Program.