He said optics job growth will cover nonengineers and will include sales, technical support and other positions. The jobs will be high-paying, Breault said. They don't come cheap. There is no position in optics that is inexpensive. But continued growth is not possible without qualified workers, who are scarce here and elsewhere.
Efforts are under way to train needed optics industry workers.
The UA Optical Sciences Center provides the area, and the world, with much-needed researchers and scientists. And Pima Community College now offers programs that train people for jobs as optics technicians. He said the training programs, funded by the Legislature, are money well-spent. And Wyant said money from Proposition 301, which voters approved last November to provide sales-tax funding for education, will allow the UA to expand optics training and research efforts.