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You are here: Home / Archives for News

News

CITT Develops Strategies for Future of Highway Construction Workforce

Apprenticeship Program Best Practices Guide

In February 2020, the Center for International Trade and Transportation (CITT) developed the Highway Construction Apprenticeship Development Guide: Highway Construction Workforce Best Practices, a guide developed as a practical addendum to the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Roads to Your Future Playbook. This “Playbook” serves as a practical guide for employers on attracting, training, and retaining a skilled workforce in highway construction. It describes a series of recommended “plays” for employers to develop more resilient workforces that are based on findings from FHWA’s Highway Construction Workforce Partnership (HCWP) pilot programs. These pilots were created to help trained workers find jobs  or obtain promotion qualifications, build a  resilient  workforce, and develop  a new model for identifying, training, and placing individuals  on  the career path of a  highway construction  professional.

The Highway Construction Apprenticeship Development Guide—a companion piece to the Playbook—was developed by CITT’s Education and Workforce Development Analyst Deanna Matsumoto and Research Assistant Caitlin Mace, as part of a Southwest Transportation Workforce Center grant awarded to CITT by FHWA. As part of her work, Matsumoto and a team of research assistants conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with the Working Groups/Task Forces for ten out of the twelve HCWP pilot locations in order to gain insight on each Working Group’s best practices. The Guide matches pilot program recommendations with plays from the Playbook. A future update of the FHWA Playbook will incorporate CITT’s work to produce a final, comprehensive document.

There is a rising demand for highway workers, yet there is a deficit in the highway construction workforce. Industry surveys show that many highway contractors have trouble finding, training, and retaining qualified workers. CITT’s Matsumoto explains “The Associated General Contractors of America has stated that  60% of construction jobs go unfilled. To address this workforce gap, we identified several proven and innovative best practices that can be implemented with highway construction workforce development teams throughout the nation.”  Some of the recommendations in the Guide included establishing shared and standardized technology platforms, issuing certifications relevant to the field, educating career mentors on the benefits of highway construction jobs, and partnering with community and adult education organizations.

The Guide also develops additional recommendations for future career development programs, building upon those addressed in the Playbook. It recommends implementing many progressive strategies for outreach such as using social media to recruit workers, creating a “no wrong door” policy that seeks to fit potential workers into positions that best suit their skills, and targeting areas where mobility infrastructure development was a high need, thereby facilitating economic development for communities through mobility in addition to job creation. Other innovative recommendations included facilitating childcare services for employees, addressing transportation obstacles through ride-sharing and similar programs, and case management services to assist with external factors that play into career success such as housing, food insecurity, substance abuse, and financial literacy education. These recommendations were all pulled from best practices identified through the interviews with the FHWA Pilot Program managers.

The objective of this comprehensive Guide is to begin resolving the highway construction worker shortage crisis and building a resilient, sustainable, and technically savvy highway construction workforce. The recommendations laid out in the Guide help both employee and employer, support overall industry growth, and serve as an initial step in allowing the industry to address the growing demand for highway construction labor. The findings are also of value to a broader set of industry sectors, including those in transportation where apprenticeship programs are not well established but where workforce challenges demand a bigger toolkit.

Filed Under: Featured, News

Enter the Student Data Challenge

Iteris is proud to sponsor the Transportation Research Board (TRB) student data challenge on urban travel time, speed and reliability for the second year running.

Students are tasked with using the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Smarter Roads Platform or UMD’s COVID-19 Impact Analysis Platform to develop a study investigating the impact COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders have had on the transportation network.

Be sure to register by July 15, 2020 and submit your report by October 15, 2020, both at [email protected].

The winner will receive a $500 prize, with top entries selected to present at a poster session at the 2021 TRB conference.

 

 

Filed Under: News

Jean-Paul Rodrigue Details COVID-19 Impact on Supply Chains

by Adylbek Abdykalikov, USC, IPPAM 2020

On April 3, 2020 Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Professor of Global Studies & Geography at Hofstra University, New York and a member of METRANS’ MetroFreight research center, presented his research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on transportation to METRANS Advisory Board, faculty, and staff. Titled “Coronavirus Impacts on Trade and Supply Chains,” the presentation focused on the effects of the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic on international trade and supply chains.  Rodrigue was invited by METRANS Director, Professor and Ferraro Chair in Effective Local Government at the University of Southern California, Dr. Genevieve Giuliano.  “METRANS is fortunate to have a deep bench of experts from which we can draw,” Giuliano noted.  “Professor Rodrigue not only is one of the world’s experts in international trade, but also conducted a research project on the potential impact of a pandemic on global supply chains.  He is uniquely qualified to tell us what we can expect from this pandemic.”

Read the full article on METRANS.org.

Filed Under: News

SWTWC Launches Visual Tool for Workforce Analysis

SWTWC has launched a new data resource that utilizes geospatial information technology to offer a visual representation of its occupational data analysis and projections. This resource helps users access and analyze state-level data for critical transportation occupations in the Southwest region.

Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, SWTWC has created an interactive story map that allows users to easily access the data most relevant to them. Once a user selects a state, they can view the 25 critical transportation occupations specific to that state. By clicking on an occupation, users can view its relevant statistics, such as average wage, current and projected number of jobs, and required education level.

The data serves to undergird SWTWC’s workforce development efforts by identifying transportation occupations with exceptional job growth projections from 2012 to 2022. This analysis forms the basis for developing career pathway programs that are tailored to each state’s workforce needs. Key findings include the following:

  • A plurality of transportation-related jobs in all states require no more than a HS diploma and boast an average wage of more than $20 per hour. Our analysis therefore shows that most of these jobs have relatively low socio-economic barriers to entry while offering a decent income.
  • Some occupations with high projected employment growth rates also have low overall employment levels. Thus, both figures must be considered when assessing an occupation’s overall economic impact within the state.
  • Workforce trends vary from state to state, but some high-growth occupations feature in the top 25 rankings for most or all states in the Southwest region. Examples include logisticians, civil engineers, electricians, and cargo and freight agents.

To interact with the visual tool and view the full report click here.

Filed Under: News

Logistics and Transportation Professions Video: Career Options

Logistics and transportation is an industry found on the ocean, on the ground and in the air. A career in logistics means managing the flow of information, goods and resources. Truck drivers, warehouse workers, managers and equipment operators are just some of the many people who control the transport and delivery of goods.

http://study.com/videos/Logistics_and_Transportation_Professions_Video_Career_Options.html

Filed Under: News

NNTW Completes the National Transportation Career Pathways Initiative

The NNTW team and regional workforce centers recently completed the National Transportation Career Pathways Initiative (NTCPI). The strategic initiative established a set of five transportation discipline-focused career pathways that will be deployed within post-secondary education/training institutions nationwide, in order to begin the development of forward-looking, technology-infused workforce pipelines that would lead students and job seekers into critical occupations within the highway transportation sector.

Filed Under: News

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