The rapid growth of optical fiber technology into all aspects of communications has created critical educational and training needs among many diverse disciplines related to this industry. The people involved in these disciplines include technicians and service personnel, corporate sales and marketing personnel, venture capital and investment banking analysts, intellectual property attorneys, engineers with limited exposure to telecommunication principles, and executives involved in businesses ranging from component and equipment manufacturing to service offerings, system installations, and network maintenance.

For example, to have a high success rate in selling a basic component such as a fiber optic cable, salespeople need to understand concepts such as how connectors and optoelectronic devices interface with the cable, how the physical properties of the optical fiber affect various types of signal transmissions, what the performance limitations of the fibers are for a particular application, and what software modeling tools are available to make a comparison of different cable types. With a solid knowledge base of these concepts, sales personnel can present the benefits of their products in a manner that maximizes the probability of a sale.