1-855-888-NTWC (6892)
twc@transportcenter.org
This brief discusses the experiences of early career Black, Latina, and Afro Latina women in the trades. The COVID crisis has put a spotlight on the concentration of Black, Latina, and Afro-Latina women in low-wage jobs, including in many essential healthcare and retail jobs. The skilled construction trades have given many women an alternative to the poorly paid jobs in the service sector that many had to turn to before finding the trades. Skilled construction trades provide opportunities to build careers that are both challenging and fulfilling, pay a family sustaining wage with benefits, and can be accessed through ‘learn as you earn’ apprenticeships.
TRANSIT MODE
RESOURCE TYPE: Funding Opportunities | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
APTA Local Coalition Grant Program
Administering Agency: American Public Transportation Association
Closing Date for Applications: Apr 24, 2024
Funding Range: $5,000 to $10,000+
Geographic Scope: National
Description: This grant opportunity is for local public transportation coalitions who are prioritizing equitable transportation strategies that improve access for traditionally disadvantaged groups, emphasize the importance of public engagement, promote sustainable transportation policies that mitigate the impacts of climate change on underserved populations, and promote safe access to transportation.
For this grant program, a coalition is defined as a collection of groups and/or individuals joined together for the common purpose of promoting public transit. An APTA public transit system member may apply for the funds on behalf of a coalition, or a coalition may apply directly for the funds.
Communities Taking Charge Accelerator
Administering Agency: U.S. Department of Energy, Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, National Energy Technology Laboratory
Posted Date: Apr 16, 2024
Concept Paper Submission Deadline: May 20, 2024
Closing Date for Applications: Jul 16, 2024
Funding Range: Total funds available: $54,000,000 — Grant award maximum: $4,000,000
Geographic Scope: National
TOPICS: Funding Opportunities , Zero Emission Buses
Description: The Communities Taking Charge Accelerator FOA seeks applications that will help further the Joint Office’s vision of a future where everyone can ride and drive electric. This FOA will fund innovative approaches to expanding EV adoption and charging access, particularly at the local level in urbanized areas where land use, density, car ownership rates, grid considerations, and other factors add further complexities to electrifying the transportation network while the demand for transportation access is at its highest density.
RESOURCE TYPE: Funding Opportunities | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) Technical Assistance Grant Program
Administering Agency: U.S. Department of Labor, Womens Bureau
Posted Date: Apr 11, 2024
Closing Date for Applications: Jun 10, 2024
Funding Range: Total funds available: $6,000,000 — Grant award maximum: $750,000; Grant award minimum: $350,000
Geographic Scope: National
Description: This program aims to provide technical assistance (TA) to employers (which may include public sector entities) and labor unions in the United States and its territories to encourage employment of women in both apprenticeable occupations and nontraditional occupations (A/NTO), specifically in the following ways:
- Developing (establishing, expanding, and/or enhancing) pre-apprenticeship, youth apprenticeship, Registered Apprenticeship (as defined in Appendix B “Acronyms and Definitions”), or other nontraditional skills training programs designed to prepare women for careers in A/NTO;
- Providing ongoing orientations or other resources for employers, unions, and workers on creating a successful environment for women in A/NTO; and/or
- Setting up support groups, facilitating networks, and/or providing supportive services (as defined in section IV.E.3) for women in A/NTO to improve their retention.
Applicants may propose to provide technical assistance to support women’s participation and success in the full range of industries in which women are historically underrepresented or where women are disproportionately concentrated in the lower-wage occupations. Such industries include, but are not limited to; advanced manufacturing, construction, energy, health care, information technology, finance, and transportation. Applicants with experience working with or as an equity intermediary are encouraged to apply, as well as applicants with a proposed focus on expanding outreach/recruitment to historically underrepresented communities, including but not limited to women of color and women with disabilities, women at or below the federal poverty line, formerly incarcerated women, immigrant women, transgender women, and women who live in rural geographic areas
Fatigue Resources for Transit Operations
To support the transit industry, FTA has compiled resources that can be used to better understand fatigue and fatigue-related issues in the workplace. The site includes resources about understanding sleep, causes of fatigue, symptoms and warning signs, effects, relevance to transit workers and agencies, and fatigue risk management systems.
Federal Transit Administration
TOPICS: Policy and Planning , Safety and Health , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Funding Opportunities | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Regional Alliances and Multistakeholder Partnerships to Stimulate (RAMPS) Cybersecurity Education and Workforce Development
Administering Agency: Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Posted Date: Mar 25, 2024
Closing Date for Applications: May 24, 2024
Geographic Scope: National
TOPICS: Career Pathways , Funding Opportunities , Training
Description: The NIST National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) is seeking applications from eligible applicants for activities to establish community-based partnerships to develop cybersecurity career pathways that address local workforce needs. Effective multistakeholder workforce partnerships will organize multiple employers with skill shortages in specific occupations to focus on developing the skilled workforce to meet industry needs within the local or regional economy.
RESOURCE TYPE: Funding Opportunities | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funding Opportunities
This is a searchable tool to help sort through the nearly 400 funding opportunities in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Users can search by funding agency, categories/topics, and eligible applicants.
Local Infrastructure Hub
TOPICS: Funding Opportunities , Policy and Planning
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Good Transit Requires Well Paid Union Workers
This report presents bus operator wages as compared with Area Median Income in 30 cities across the U.S., pointing out that in the last two decades, starting wages for our nation’s bus operators have fallen seriously behind the cost of living. In the face of a workforce shortage, the report makes the case for decision makers to ensure higher wages for frontline transit workers.
The National Campaign for Transit Justice
March 2024
TOPICS: Hiring and Recruitment , Policy and Planning , Retention , Workforce Shortage
RESOURCE TYPE: Funding Opportunities | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Programs
Administering Agency: Transportation Research Board
Closing Date for Applications: May 15, 2024
Funding Range: Grant award maximum: $100,000
Geographic Scope: National
TOPICS: Funding Opportunities
Description: The Transit IDEA Program is a part of the Transit Cooperative Research Program and is designed to foster innovative concepts that have the potential to enhance security, increase ridership, improve efficiency for transit agencies, and protect the environment. IDEA programs differ from traditional research programs in two ways: IDEA projects are initiated by researchers rather than by a request for proposals, and funding can support initial testing of unproven concepts. One of IDEA’s high priority areas is “improving transit patron and employee environment for health and safety.”
Public transit agencies can’t apply directly, but can be partners in developing proposals, participate in the project generally, and test prototypes.
Intelligent Transport Podcast: Discussing the creation of ‘Mentors Moving Metro’
“Mentors Moving Metro” is a partnership between Metro and the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 587 that will match experienced operators with new, part-time operators for six to 12 months. In this podcast discussion, Metro’s Director of Bus Operations, Phil DeVault, and transit operator and ATU member, Patrick Brady, talk about how “Mentors Moving Metro” is helping foster relationships and provide knowledge that can only come those who have been “in the seat.” They discussed the origins of the program, how mentors can be a morale boost for operators, and how it can foster greater interaction between operators and management. They finished the podcast by discussing their vision on developing it from a mentorship program to an apprenticeship program for drivers joining Metro in the future.
Intelligent Transport
March 2024
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Career Pathways , Labor-Management Partnerships , Mentorship , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Funding Opportunities | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants Program
Administering Agency: Environmental Protection Agency
Posted Date: Nov 21, 2023
Closing Date for Applications: Nov 21, 2024
Funding Range: Total funds available: $2,000,000,000 — Grant award maximum: $20,000,000
Geographic Scope: National
TOPICS: Funding Opportunities
Description: The Community Change Grants will fund community-driven projects that address climate challenges and reduce pollution while strengthening communities through thoughtful implementation. There will be two tracks of funding under this opportunity. Track I will fund approximately 150 large, transformational community-driven investment grants of $10 million – $20 million. Track II will fund approximately 20 meaningful engagement grants of $1 million – $3 million. Grants cannot exceed 3-years in duration. These programs will address the diverse and unique needs of disadvantaged communities by:
- Reducing and preventing pollution;
- Building resilience to climate change and mitigating current and future climate risks;
- Enhancing meaningful involvement in government processes related to environmental and climate
justice; - Expanding access to high-quality jobs and economic opportunity through workforce development;
and - Bolstering community strength by ensuring that local residents receive the benefits of investments
and have the opportunity to build on them for current and future generations.
Joint Office of Energy and Transportation Workforce Development Resources
The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (Joint Office) supports the deployment of zero-emission, convenient, accessible, and equitable transportation infrastructure. In addition to providing direct funding support for workforce development, the Joint Office has collated example resources to support workforce development activities for an electrified transportation system.
Joint Office of Energy and Transportation
Creating a Skilled and Diverse Workforce for Infrastructure Projects through Registered Apprenticeship
The expansion of Registered Apprenticeship and pathways that lead people into apprenticeship is an important workforce strategy for many infrastructure projects. Agencies can take steps to make Registered Apprenticeship more accessible to populations that have been underrepresented in the infrastructure workforce including women, people of color, people with disabilities, and others.
The questions and answers in this resource focus on expanding the workforce for installing and maintaining electric vehicle chargers, but the information provided is applicable to many other areas of infrastructure and transportation.
Department of Labor, Department of Transportation
Transit Workforce Data Dashboard Webinar: Harnessing the Power of Data for Transit Workforce Development
TWC hosted a webinar titled “Transit Workforce Data Dashboard Webinar: Harnessing the Power of Data for Transit Workforce Development” on February 28, 2024. The Dashboard features innovative visualizations of transit and transportation workforce statistics and demographics from the National Transit Database (NTD) and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It can be used to highlight key issues, like the high proportion of transit workers nearing retirement age, the potential for greater participation of women in key transportation occupations, and the need to hire extensively in the coming decade. A new interactive page launched in February, allowing users to filter NTD employment data by agency.
TWC demonstrated the full dashboard, discussed lessons learned from working with NTD and BLS data, and opened up a Q&A for participants to ask questions or share their unique data needs.
Transit Workforce Center
February 2024
At the end of the webinar, TWC shared a survey to collect unique transit workforce data needs and feedback for potential additions to the Data Dashboard. The survey continues to accept responses and can be found below.
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes , Bus - Fixed Route , Rail - Commuter , Rail - Light, Heavy
Mental Health, Wellness, and Resilience for Transit System Workers
TCRP Research Report 245: Mental Health, Wellness, and Resilience for Transit System Workers, a pre-publication from TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program, provides a detailed summary of common factors that influence the mental health, well-being, and resiliency of frontline transit workers and includes a range of solutions that transit agencies can implement to address them. Findings were determined using a mix of research methods, including multiple interviews and focus groups with frontline employees, transit agency management, and union leadership at two different points in the project.
Transit Cooperative Research Program
February 2024
TOPICS: Policy and Planning , Safety and Health
Contributor(s): Sandy Brennan, Elias Frantz Orjuela, Kyle Hearing, Sofie Rhoads, Lori Zeller, Samantha G. Farris, Andrea Lubin, Soumitra S. Bhuyan, Lilly Derby, Koshy Koshy; Transit Cooperative Research Program; Transportation Research Board; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Transit, Belabored: Issues and Futures for California’s Frontline Transit Workforce
This report focuses on frontline transit workforce issues, including employee pay, issues before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the workforce shortage. The report is mainly about transit operators, but also touches on mechanics. It draws on quantitative and qualitative data, including wage data by agency and sector, contracts and agency documents, and interviews with union leaders, agency managers, and operators themselves.
Institute of Transportation Studies
February 2024
TOPICS: Hiring and Recruitment , Policy and Planning , Retention , Workforce Shortage
De-Escalation Training Resource Directory
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has gathered these resources to support the transit industry in developing, implementing, and updating their training programs. The resources illustrate ways agencies throughout the transit industry are implementing de-escalation training.
Federal Transit Administration
February 2024
TOPICS: Policy and Planning , Safety and Health , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
How to Deal with the Worker Shortage and Evolving Skill Requirements of the Public Transport Sector
This report provides a European counterpart to those produced within the United States on the transit workforce shortage. It gives an overview of the workforce shortage’s causes, as well as recommendations for addressing evolving skill requirements, diversifying the workforce, and more.
Expert Group on Urban Mobility, European Commission
February 2024
Case Study: Golden Gate Transit & Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1575
Marin County, California-based Golden Gate Transit (GGT) operates commuter bus lines in four Bay Area counties, including San Francisco. Like many agencies, GGT has struggled with operator recruitment and retention. To address these challenges, the agency and the union representing operators, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1575, formed a labor-management partnership, the Workforce Investment Network (WIN). The WIN partnership has implemented bus operator mentorship, apprenticeship, and pre-apprenticeship programs; formed partnerships with educational institutions and community groups; made policy changes to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion; and identified opportunities to remove particular barriers to entry for job seekers.
Transit Workforce Center
February 2024
Read Rich Diaz’s Transit Career Story on the TWC Blog to learn more.
View the full case study below:
RESOURCE TYPE: | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Making a Positive Impact: GCRTA and ATU Local 268’s Operator Mentoring Program
This video provides an overview of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) and Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 268 operator mentoring program. Incorporating the voices of frontline workers, it explains the benefits of mentoring that GCRTA has realized and provides a window into how the program developed.
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 268
February 2024
TOPICS: Mentorship
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Understanding Workforce Diversity in the Transit Industry: Establishing a Baseline of Diversity Demographics
This study provides baseline data on the status of the racial/ethnic and gender diversity of the transit agency workforce in the U.S. and identifies potential barriers and promising practices for diversifying this workforce.
Mineta Transportation Institute
February 2024
The study updates those earlier studies with newer data drawn from five discrete research tasks:
- review of the scholarly and professional literature on the topic;
- review of the websites of the 50 largest transit operators;
- analysis of employee demographic data submitted by 152 transit operators as part of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) program plans;
- analysis of responses to an original survey sent to the human resources personnel of transit agencies (92 responses from staff at 68 agencies), and
- interviews with 12 professionals selected for their expertise in transportation workforce diversity monitoring, management, and/or advocacy.
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
National Outreach Survey for Transportation (NOST)
This report explores the status of sex and labor trafficking in the transportation industry. It explains and highlights a survey of frontline data collected from across the transportation industry, as well as from sex and labor trafficking survivors and direct victim service providers. Data analysis includes information about the current knowledge base on sex trafficking among frontline transportation workers and suggestions for training.
United Against Slavery
January 2024
TOPICS: Policy and Planning , Safety and Health , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Standards , Tools/Toolkits , Training Materials , Training Programs | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes , Bus - Fixed Route , Paratransit
Passenger Assistance, Safety And Sensitivity (PASS) Program Handbook
CTAA’s Passenger Assistance, Safety and Sensitivity (PASS) driver training program provides resources and standards for operators to transport passengers in the most safe, sensitive and careful manner possible. PASS is ideal for non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) trips, for ADA paratransit services, for specialized transit for older passengers, for human and social service riders — really any transportation operation where the passengers require extra care.
Community Transportation Association of America
January 2024
Transit Exclusion Policies in Public Transportation Systems
This report documents the practice of the use of transportation exclusion policies in North American transit systems. It is designed to help transit agencies in understanding the usefulness of such policies, as well as understanding the methods for creating, amending, or supplementing exclusion policies to maximize their effectiveness in reducing crime and disorder within their respective transit systems.
Transit Cooperative Research Program
January 2024
TOPICS: Policy and Planning , Safety and Health , Training
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; Transit Cooperative Research Program; Patricia Bye; Deborah Matherly
Human Trafficking: Awareness to Action
This webinar reviews the anti-trafficking resources available to transit agencies, shares success stories from the transit industry, and highlights a newly developed template for implementing human trafficking response protocols, which are vital to effective anti-trafficking initiatives. The accompanying toolkit guides transit agencies on steps they can take to help combat human trafficking, including how they can partner with Busing on the Lookout (BOTL) to implement anti-human trafficking training and policies in their operations.
Presenters:
- Jodi Godrey, Center For Urban Transportation Research
- Lexi Higgins, Busing on the Lookout (BOTL) at Truckers Against Trafficking
American Public Transportation Association
January 2024
TOPICS: Safety and Health
RESOURCE TYPE: Tools/Toolkits | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Using Your Safety Management System (SMS) to Protect Transit Workers from Assaults
FTA is working with transit agencies to address the ongoing risk of assaults on transit workers using Safety Management System principles and methods, which FTA adopted as the basis of its Public Transportation Safety Program and Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans (PTASP) regulation.
FTA has developed technical assistance resources to help transit agencies conduct safety risk assessments related to assaults on transit workers and develop safety risk mitigations.
Check out FTA’s full page of crime prevention assistance resources.
Federal Transit Administration
December 2023
TOPICS: Policy and Planning , Safety and Health
Mental Health Resources for Transit Workers
The Federal Transit Administration has aggregated the mental health resources to support transit industry workers during challenging times. Topics include suicide prevention, active shooter preparedness, mental health first aid, and more.
U.S. Department of Tranportation, Federal Transit Administration
December 2023
TOPICS: Safety and Health
Approaches to Childcare Support in the Transit Industry
Across the nation, the lack of access to affordable and accessible childcare is often a major employment barrier for workers in the transit industry. TWC hosted a pivotal discussion on this issue in the webinar, “Approaches to Childcare Support in the Transit Industry”.
Hear from Barb Cline, Executive Director of Prairie Hills Transit (Spearfish, South Dakota), and Charles Jenkins, Director of the Transport Workers Union Local 100 – New York City Transit Training & Upgrading Fund, who share their approaches to creating childcare solutions tailored for their transit employees. They will delve into the inception of their programs, their ongoing hurdles, and the successes that have marked their journey.
Transit Workforce Center
November 2023
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Advancing Apprenticeship: Opportunities For States And Business To Create And Expand Registered Apprenticeship Programs
This publication highlights the significance of Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs) as one of several strategies and opportunities that employers and states can implement and offer to individuals as a viable path toward securing and prospering in a career. Registered Apprenticeship plays an important role in the U.S. economy and workforce ecosystem by satisfying employer talent needs while providing training and employment pathways for individuals in family-sustaining, in-demand careers. A registered apprenticeship is an intensive program that offers an individual paid on-the-job experience, coupled with classroom learning that together provides a jobseeker with the necessary skills to secure gainful employment.
National Governors Association
November 2023
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Career Pathways , Policy and Planning
Community Colleges and Apprenticeship: The Promise, the Challenge
To better understand the challenges and opportunities facing community colleges that want to expand apprenticeship opportunities to their students, New America conducted a year-long study. They spoke to apprenticeship, workforce development, and community college leaders about the community colleges role in expanding apprenticeship.
New America Center on Education and Education Policy
November 2023
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Career Pathways , Policy and Planning
Based on these conversations, we chose case studies and conducted in-depth interviews with leaders from the Community College System of New Hampshire’s ApprenticeshipNH, Arapahoe in Colorado, San Jacinto in Texas, and Howard Community College in Maryland’s programs in IT and cybersecurity, and Coastal Alabama Community College’s nursing apprenticeship.
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Transportation for People with Disabilities and Older Adults During COVID-19: Lessons for Emergency Response
This pre-publication report aims to provide transportation organizations (including transit agencies, specialized transportation providers, and other local government agencies and stakeholders) with helpful information and strategies on providing service for persons with disabilities and older adults in emergency situations.
Transportation Cooperative Research Program
October 2023
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; Transit Cooperative Research Program; Todd Hansen; Zachary Elgart; Ipek Sener; Patricia Bye
Peer Mentoring Program Increases Retention and Decreases Absences of New Drivers
This case study from APTA’s Passenger Transport presents findings from the mentorship program at Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA). GCRTA and ATU local 268 launched their Positive Impact Program, a peer mentoring program that has seen impacts on retention and absenteeism within its first nine months.
American Public Transportation Association
October 2023
TOPICS: Labor-Management Partnerships , Mentorship , Retention , Workforce Shortage
Integrating Industry Credentials within Apprenticeship Programs
This webinar examines how to integrate industry credentials within registered and unregistered apprenticeship programs and emphasizes the importance of building connections across sponsor/employer organizations to ensure curriculum and training alignment.
WorkforceGPS
September 2023
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Career Pathways
RESOURCE TYPE: Tools/Toolkits , Training Materials , Training Programs , Webinars | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Lesson Planning Webinar: Basics to Best Practices
Have you ever been tasked with developing or delivering a class and didn’t know where to start? Do you have a class that isn’t engaging learners and you don’t know why? On September 26, 2023, TWC hosted an informative webinar on Lesson Planning basics and best practices with award winning author and advisor on all things training, Dr. Chuck Hodell. We took a high-level look at Lesson Planning for those new to training, as well as discussed how to overcome inherent challenges and best practices for transit trainers.
Transit Workforce Center
September 2023
TOPICS: Trainer and Mentor Development , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Case Studies | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Approaches to Childcare Support in the Transit Industry
Transit Workforce Center
September 2023
Key Takeaways:
- There are many ways to support the childcare needs of employees; there is no one-size-fits-all model.
- The models examined in this case study include a voucher system, an on-site center managed directly by the agency, and a discounted center managed by a contractor with supplemental referral services.
- Challenges remain, including childcare affordability and availability.
- Still, these programs can boost morale and attendance among working parents and caregivers.
At New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), the first sign of a problem was attendance. Los Angeles Metro experienced a similar phenomenon of worker absences, which grew worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. At Prairie Hills Transit in South Dakota, the agency (like many employers in the community) struggled just to get workers in the first place. In community after community, public transit is suffering from low employee availability, and a key driver of the workforce shortage is clear—a lack of affordable childcare.
The good news for the public transit industry is that a variety of models already exist that support the childcare needs of frontline workers. This case study describes three such models: a voucher system, an on-site center managed directly by the agency, and a discounted center managed by a contractor with supplemental referral services. Across the spectrum of agency sizes—from a small rural agency to an agency serving one of the world’s largest cities—transit providers have opportunities to support their workers, both as employees and as parents.
Please see the summary table at the end of the case study for an overview of each of these programs.
Background: The Urgency of Childcare Needs
The United States used to have one of the highest rates of working women among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, but in recent years, the U.S. rate has declined. As parents struggle to find stable access to childcare, they are forced to limit their workforce participation, leave employment altogether, or pay an often-unsustainable portion of their income towards a childcare program. Using data from the National Survey of Children’s Health, the Center for American Progress (CAP) estimated that in 2016 nearly two million Americans made career sacrifices due to issues with childcare.
As the United States, and in particular the transit industry, faces a difficult and ongoing labor shortage, it is important for mothers to be able to participate in the workforce if they choose. Even though women are less present in the labor force, families are becoming increasingly dependent on the maternal income. Only about 30 percent of families with children rely solely on a father’s income; women are primary or equal earners in about two-thirds of families. Women of color with children are even more likely than white women to be in the labor force, be primary breadwinners, and be in low-earning jobs (NWLC).
Despite this necessity, childcare remains a determining obstacle. An analysis of the 2016 Early Childhood Program Participation Survey (ECPP) indicated that half of American families struggle to find adequate childcare, with cost most commonly reported as a barrier. Another CAP analysis found that over half of Americans live in childcare deserts (areas with few or no options for childcare). The maternal workforce participation rate is an average of three percent lower in these deserts than in areas with adequate childcare. Hispanic/Latino families are more likely to reside in childcare deserts and more likely to report location as an obstacle to obtaining childcare. The prevalence of location as an obstacle can be further explored with these interactive childcare desert maps.
Even small steps to alleviate childcare burdens can help parents join the workforce. A study of Washington, DC’s universal, full-day preschool program found that since the program’s inception, the rate of mothers participating in the city’s workforce increased by 12 percent. Subsidies to support parents in finding childcare assistance can have positive impacts on their workforce participation as well. A study of childcare and parent labor force participation found that just a 10 percent decrease in childcare costs could lead to a 0.5-2.5 percent increase in maternal employment. A paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research indicated that if childcare costs were capped at seven percent of income, the rate of low-income mothers in full-time jobs would increase by 18 percent and the overall maternal employment would increase by 10 percent, which would add 12 million mothers to the workforce. For individual families, gender parity, and the overall economy, these increases are important, and they are essential to mitigating the workforce shortage in the transit industry.
Childcare Examples in Public Transportation
Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 – New York City Transit Child Care Fund (CCF)
In New York City, TWU Local 100 and NYC Transit came together to create the Child Care Fund (CCF), a financial assistance program designed to support the families of Local 100 members who need help paying for childcare expenses. In 2002, Local 100 proposed a new benefit for its members in the collective bargaining agreement: funds through CCF to support parents of young children in obtaining childcare. MTA management, concerned about the effects of worker absences on its operations, agreed to the new benefit. “Workers were doing the calculus of whether it’s worth it to spend X amount on childcare versus just staying home and not working and caring for the child instead. Childcare is very expensive,” said Charles Jenkins, Director of TUF. This no-win choice weighed particularly heavy on women. Jenkins recounted how historically, transit has been a predominantly male industry with few accommodations for women, even proper bathrooms, until recently. Long-standing worker shortages in public transit have led the industry to begin thinking differently.
CCF provides financial support to parents for either a year-round childcare program or for summer camps; the employee can choose. The employee also has the discretion to choose who cares for their child—CCF covers about forty percent of the cost of childcare in a licensed facility (up to $320 weekly), and about twenty percent (up to $160 weekly) if the provider is not licensed—for example, if the caregiver is a family member. If the employee chooses the summer camp option, fifty percent is covered (up to $1,000). The benefit is offered to all employees in good standing who have completed one year of employment, until the employee’s child reaches age 12.
The program is not without challenges. It is first-come-first-served, with limited funds, although most people who seek out the benefit do receive it. Some members report they didn’t know about the fund, and even with a subsidy, childcare remains expensive. Still, CCF’s support helps. “Our members are very thankful for the benefit,” Jenkins said, and the agency and union have found that attendance is high when adequate childcare is in place.
Prairie Hills Transit (Spearfish, South Dakota)
Over a thousand miles away and in a much more rural area, the childcare landscape looks different. Prairie Hills, SD, has struggled for years with a lack of childcare providers in the community. Around 2010, Prairie Hills Transit (PHT) Executive Director Barb Cline noticed that federal funds were available for the construction of new buildings. Thinking creatively, she pursued grants and loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the purpose of constructing a childcare facility within the PHT campus. “We knew this was a community problem, bigger than our own staff,” Cline reported. With only about 50 employees, PHT’s staff didn’t have enough children for a center limited to employees, so the agency opened its doors to the wider community.
Today, this licensed, on-site childcare center can accommodate up to 41 children. To handle demand, PHT is expanding to a new rented location which can enroll another 25 or so children. Because childcare has a low profit margin, no external company would take on the contract, so PHT hired its own manager for the program. Now that the building has been constructed, the program sustains itself financially. Employees of PHT receive a thirty percent discount, while other parents in the community pay full price (though some use government benefits to pay and segmented payment plans are available). Children don’t age out formally, but most enrollees are age five or younger. PHT has found that male and female employees alike take advantage of the program. Recognizing that employees won’t be able to transport their children from school to after-school childcare in the middle of a shift, PHT obtained a separate bus with car seats to provide those trips themselves.
PHT reported several challenges it encountered as the program unfolded. Licensing requirements for childcare centers have gotten stricter and PHT has had to invest time to adapt. Another challenge for the agency has been the “human versus the financial”: if a parent only wants part-time childcare, the center wants to accommodate the family’s needs, but the accommodation results in the loss of a full-time spot and thus a loss of funds. Availability of childcare remains a challenge because demand is so high, even though PHT employees receive some degree of priority; “our waiting list is 12 pages long,” Cline said. Even with a subsidy, affordability is still a question for some families. However, employee turnover is low at PHT and childcare may be part of the reason.
PHT has realized that because of the geographic dispersion of employees and the low turnover of children in the center, some employees are not able to take advantage of the center’s offerings. As the program looks to the future, PHT is looking to build a second shared-use facility to expand capacity.
LA Metro (Los Angeles, CA)
Like so many other transit agencies, Los Angeles Metro found its workforce depleted as the COVID-19 pandemic progressed. The agency recognized that a lack of childcare delayed re-entry into the workforce.
LA Metro offers three options for their employees to find support The first is, through a memorandum of understanding, a partnership with Pathways LA to provide referral services to LA Metro employees seeking childcare. Pathways LA gives parents digestible information about childcare options and assistance navigating the possibilities available. LA Metro also utilizes its employee assistance program through ComPsych Corporation Guidance Resources, which connects employees to a Work-Life Specialist. This specialist provides personalized resources custom to the needs of the individual employees seeking childcare in their area. The third support is more recently established: LA Metro has leased a space it owns, beginning June 2023, to Pathways LA for a childcare center within walking distance from Metro’s central maintenance facility and headquarters. This arrangement was established through a competitive bid process. The center is not exclusive to LA Metro employees, but employees receive a 15% discount and get priority enrollment. The center serves children up to age 5 and offers everything from an infant center to an educational curriculum for older children to special needs programming. LA Metro has hired a coordinator to oversee the relationship between Pathways LA and Metro, which has been indispensable to facilitating a smooth partnership, the agency reported.
As childcare needs have evolved, LA Metro has persevered in seeking the best options for its employees within available resources. Before the Pathways LA partnership, LA Metro had partnered with a different third-party provider; with the new partnership, largely because of inflation, prices have risen and employees that transferred from one provider to the other were impacted by the change. Prices were already steep and employees felt the increase keenly. Another challenge has been the limitations of a single facility location: the fact that the center is close to LA Metro’s headquarters and central maintenance garage reduces travel and logistics for some parents, but not all Metro employees report to those locations. For LA Metro, a multi-pronged approach has been most successful.
Conclusion
Finding adequate childcare services is an imperative step in entering or re-entering the workforce, but it’s not easy for every parent. In the face of a widespread workforce shortage, if transit agencies are able to help parents with this step, it can help rebuild and maintain their workforce. These examples provide evidence that agencies of varied sizes across the county can find a childcare supportive service program that works for them. LA Metro found that neither subsidies nor self-administration of a childcare center was realistic for them, but partnerships with an established and trusted provider could further their employees’ access to childcare resources. On the other hand, Prairie Hills Transit, facing a childcare desert in their community, established their own center. Meanwhile, MTA and TWU Local found that cost, not availability, was the primary limiting factor for their employees, and they were able to address that challenge for many families. Other transit agencies can take similar steps, utilize their own unique resources, and learn from the challenges faced in these examples to facilitate access to childcare services for their employees, which in turn will contribute to a stronger and more reliable workforce.
Summary of MTA/TWU Local 100, Prairie Hills Transit, and LA Metro Childcare Programs
For more information on these programs, contact:
- Barb Cline, Prairie Hills Transit: bkcline@prairiehillstransit.com
- Jodi Stewart, LA Metro: stewartj@metro.net
- Shayna Gleason, TWC: sgleason@transportcenter.org
US Department of Labor Blog: Data Spotlight
This page on the US Department of Labor Blog features data spotlight articles by David Rosenblum which provide visualizations of Census Bureau data about different demographics in skilled trade professions.
US Department of Labor
September 2023
Tools for Building an Equitable Infrastructure Workforce
Department of Labor
September 2023
This toolkit provides guidance on strategies and best practices for recruiting and retaining women in construction, manufacturing, and clean energy jobs. The strategies describe how to make the intentional choice to build a diverse workforce, create targeted recruitment, address barriers of entry, and retain a diverse workforce.
Apprentice Trailblazer Initiative
The Apprentice Trailblazer Initiative is designed to create a national network of diverse apprentices and apprenticeship graduates of all ages and backgrounds to feature their stories and hear their perspectives, show how Registered Apprenticeships increase opportunities for underserved populations, and bring awareness to other career seekers who may be interested in becoming apprentices.
Department of Labor; ApprenticeshipUSA
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Career Pathways , Mentorship
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
National Transit Workforce Development Strategic Plan 2023 to 2028
Federal Transit Administration
August 2023
TOPICS: Hiring and Recruitment , Policy and Planning , Retention , Safety and Health
The Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) first National Transit Workforce Development six-year Strategic Plan outlines goals and objectives to address workforce challenges and opportunities in the public transportation industry. The plan has six overarching goals: ensuring worker safety and health, investing in workforce development, driving workforce recruitment, ensuring worker retention, developing worker skills, and tracking success through appropriate metrics. FTA’s Transit Workforce Center led the development of this plan collaborating closely with FTA and with stakeholders across transit agencies, unions, national transit associations, the US Department of Labor, and workers. The plan will guide FTA’s activities and investments to support transit agencies as they recruit, retain, and train the diverse workforce they need today and tomorrow.
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Opening Doors: Including People with Disabilities in the Transit Workforce
TR News
August 2023
In the transportation industry, individuals with disabilities should comprise part of a diverse workforce and can be included in recruitment and retention initiatives. “Opening Doors: Including People with Disabilities in the Transit Workforce” offers an overview of strategies and is one of the feature articles in the July-August 2023 edition (Issue 346) of TR News, TRB’s magazine.
Authors: Judy Shanley (National Center for Mobility Management), Shayna Gleason (Transit Workforce Center), and Patricia Greenfield (Transit Workforce Center)
People First
This report from TransitCenter describes the current transit industry workforce shortage and provides recommendations for agency leadership, policy makers, and community advocates to help address the issue, including creating a robust human resources department, as well as strategies to address recruitment, training, and retention.
TransitCenter
July 2023
TOPICS: Workforce Shortage
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
This landing page provides information about WIOA as well as resources to help employers take advantage of WIOA funding to support apprenticeship.
Department of Labor
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Funding Opportunities
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) was signed into law on July 22, 2014. WIOA is designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy.
Driver Recruitment and Retention Strategies
This blog post from the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center discusses recruitment and retention strategies for transit agencies, particularly in regard to older and disabled workers in the face of industry-wide labor shortages. It includes examples of successful partnerships and effective mentoring programs.
National Aging and Disability Transportation Center
July 2023
Registered Apprenticeship Academy
This page, created by the ETA’s Office of Apprenticeship, offers a wide range of courses, webinars, and other resources for program sponsors, apprentices, state apprenticeship agency partners, and other stakeholders to provide training, enhance skills, and stay up to date on best practices for registered apprenticeships.
Employment and Training Administration
TOPICS: Apprenticeship
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Growing Quality Green Jobs
This report describes how the US workforce is greening via the creation of new green jobs, adoption of green skills in existing jobs, and the rapid proliferation of green technologies throughout the economy, including in the transportation industry.
Burning Glass Institute, Jobs for the Future
July 2023
TOPICS: Policy and Planning , Zero Emission Buses
Interactive Apprenticeship Data
This dashboard provides key statistics on apprentices by fiscal year (FY) (October through September), including state and national program data entered or uploaded into the Registered Apprenticeship Partners Information Database System (RAPIDS).
Apprenticeship USA
June 2023
TOPICS: Apprenticeship
Expanding Apprenticeship for Individuals with Disabilities
This landing page features a variety of resources aimed at providing information, ideas, tools, and practices for supporting individuals with disabilities in apprenticeship programs. The resources include specific programs, toolkits and guides, outreach and background materials, and research.
WorkforceGPS
June 2023
Transit Mentorship Metrics: Positive Signs for Retention, Attendance, and Additional Outcomes
Transit Workforce Center
June 2023
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Mentorship , Policy and Planning , Retention , Training
This fact sheet provides overviews of four of the country’s most robust bus operator mentoring programs and preliminary data on the success of these programs (as of Spring 2023). Operator mentorship programs pair seasoned bus operators with new ones for technical skill instruction and/or individualized coaching and support to help mentees be successful in their new positions. They leverage institutional knowledge and incumbent workers’ expertise to improve training and support for new workers. The Mentoring Fact Sheet provides insight into the role mentorship programs can play in improving retention rates of workers, decrease unexcused absences, reduce rates of recorded violations, and lower complaints.
Transit-Community Partnerships: Advancing Workforce Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion
In this webinar, hosted by the Transportation Equity Caucus and Transit Workforce Center, panelists with experience in community-based partnerships that embrace diversity, equity, inclusion, and access discuss a variety of ways community-based organizations, transit agencies, and unions can engage in creating a strong workforce that fully reflects their communities.
Transportation Equity Caucus
June 2023
Featured Speakers:
- Beth Berendsen, Policy Director, Chicago Women in Trades
- Rich Diaz, Bus Operator Mentor Lead, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1575
- Aaron Koski, Senior Manager – Workforce Development, Metro Transit (MN)
- Anna Penland, Assistant Transportation Manager – OECC Coordinator, Metro Transit (MN)
- David Stephen, International Transportation Learning Center/Transit Workforce Center
- Chris VanEyken, Director, Research and Policy, TransitCenter
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
After Everything: Projections of Jobs, Education, and Training Requirements through 2031
By 2031, 72 percent of jobs in the US will require postsecondary education and/or training. Between 2021 and 2031, there will be 18.5 million job openings per year on average, and some 12.5 million of these annualized openings will require at least some college education. After Everything: Projections of Jobs, Education, and Training Requirements through 2031 includes a national overview of job projections and their educational requirements across industries, occupational clusters, and detailed occupational groups. These latest projections demonstrate the central role postsecondary education plays in preparing the workforce of the future.
Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce
June 2023
Partnering With Purpose: Building Partnerships to Drive Equitable Registered Apprenticeships
This webinar recording features successful partnership stakeholders discussing how to create and maintain partnerships to support equitable and effective registered apprenticeships. Leaders of apprenticeship partnerships discuss the steps they took to build strong relationships with fellow stakeholders and the factors that make their partnerships succeed.
Jobs for the Future
May 2023
Lunch & Learn: Youth Careers in Transit – Exploring a World of Opportunity
This is Part 4 of Iyai’s 6-part 2023 Transportation/Mobility Career Awareness Lunch and Learn series. This webinar is co-sponsored with the International Transportation Learning Center / Transit Workforce Center. This webinar features presenters at various stages of their transit careers discussing their work and their own career pathways, engaging in an interactive discussion with the audience.
Iyai+; International Transportation Learning Center/Transit Workforce Center
May 2023
Program: Iyai’s Dr. Beverly Scott and TWC’s Shayna Gleason present an overview of the program series and career landscape, followed by participants in diverse positions talking about their work and careers. Speakers include:
- Marvin Alfred, President, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 113 (Toronto);
- Kyisha Bond, mechanic apprentice, IndyGo (Indianapolis),
- Inez Evans, President and CEO, IndyGo (Indianapolis);
- Andrew Falotico, Health and Safety Representative, ATU Local 113 (Toronto);
- Desiree Patrice, Deputy Chief of Capital Transformation, MBTA (Boston).
After the presentations, Karen Philbrick from the Mineta Transportation Institute facilitates a conversation between the audience and presenters.
Procedures for Transportation Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs: Addition of Oral Fluid Specimen Testing for Drugs
This rule amends the U.S. Department of Transportation’s regulated industry drug testing program to include oral fluid testing. This additional methodology for drug testing will give employers a choice that will help combat employee cheating on urine drug tests and provide a less intrusive means of achieving the safety goals of the program.
Department of Transportation
May 2023
Gender Imbalance in the Transport Sector: A Toolkit for Change
This study builds upon findings from the SuM4All Global Roadmap for Action, which called for the transport sector to address key barriers inhibiting women from accessing decent work in the industry. It delivers a clear overview of the existing employment landscape in transport and recommends and guides positive action for practitioners across the sector. Informed by desk-based research, surveys, interviews, and case studies, the study examines the primary challenges for women entering, remaining in, and progressing in the transport sector worldwide, before presenting a toolkit, which lays out key recommendations for action.
Sustainable Mobility for All
May 2023
Creating Opportunities for Individuals with Disabilities in the Transportation Workforce
When transportation professionals are equipped with knowledge and skills about disability topics, they can help create welcoming and engaging employment settings for individuals with disabilities. This new NCMM/TWC learning module offers hiring professionals strategies to recruit and retain individuals with disabilities in the transportation workforce. Learn about partnerships, inclusive hiring, and accommodations to attract and retain employees with disabilities.
National Center for Mobility Management; Transit Workforce Center
May 2023
RESOURCE TYPE: Tools/Toolkits | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
LADOT Bilingual Glossary of Transportation Terms
Los Angeles Department of Transportation
May 2023
In 2020-2022, LADOT collaborated with LA Walks, community members, transportation and planning practitioners, advocates and others to develop LADOT’s first Spanish glossary. The project includes over 100 transportation planning and community engagement terms to improve and standardize LADOT’s Spanish language communication, as well as empower Spanish speaking communities to advocate for transportation improvements.
Apprenticeship Start-up Summary
These summaries outline the steps to tailor an effective Registered Apprenticeship (RA) program. These steps can be completed in order or, in some cases, concurrently. Apprenticeship programs are customizable to meet the employers’ skill requirements.
ProgressWorx
April 2023
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Career Pathways , Labor-Management Partnerships , Mentorship , Training
If the workforce for the occupation to be registered as an apprenticeship is represented by a labor union, the employer and union would register the program as an Individual Joint program. If the workforce is not represented, the program would be registered as an Individual Non-Joint program by the employer.
Engaging Frontline Employees in Adopting New Transit Technologies
The purpose of this guidebook, made in collaboration with the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), is to help management staff in the US transit industry engage frontline employees as they transition into a new era of transit technologies. The guidebook considers broader issues such as workforce shortages, provides advice and information on training frontline employees on new transit technologies, and discusses the usefulness of apprenticeships.
National Center for Applied Transit Technology
April 2023
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Policy and Planning , Training , Workforce Shortage , Zero Emission Buses
RESOURCE TYPE: Tools/Toolkits | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Workforce Mini-Guides
These six workforce development mini-guides are designed to help develop and implement successful strategies to address the critical workforce shortages seen across the public transportation industry. They cover these topics: advancing awareness of transit careers; creating internships and apprenticeships; recruiting and hiring transit workers; serving the underserved in the workforce; onboarding, training, and retaining workers; and building a transit curriculum.
American Public Transportation Association
April 2023
An October 2022 survey conducted by APTA revealed that 96 percent of transit agencies of all sizes are experiencing workforce challenges, and 84 percent said these shortages are impacting their ability to provide service. APTA developed these mini-guides building on their 2021 Transit Workforce Readiness Guide and combining industry insights and stories, case studies, lessons learned, and best practices.
Apprenticeship Equal Employment Opportunity Toolkit
This toolkit provides advice on how to reach the Department of Labor utilization goal for sponsors of Registered Apprenticeship Programs to have individuals with disabilities make up at least 7% of people enrolled. It includes information about outreach and recruitment; preventing harassment, intimidation, and retaliation; providing reasonable accommodations; developing and implementing an affirmative action program, and encouraging self-identification.
Partnership on Inclusive Apprenticeship
Guidebook for Mobility Innovation: Principles to Plan, Design, & Implement Innovative Mobility Projects
Shared-Use Mobility Center
April 2023
TOPICS: Policy and Planning , Training
This guidebook is designed to help mobility innovators in the transportation sector while developing and implementing a pilot project. It provides a series of principles to better plan, design, and implement innovative mobility pilot projects. These principles have supporting information about strategies to execute this principle, examples of this principle in action, resources about this principle, and questions to prompt team discussions. The guidebook includes advice and support for training transit workers during a pilot project.
Five Charts To Understand Black Registered Apprentices in the United States
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
March 2023
The Joint Center’s issue brief, Five Charts To Understand Black Registered Apprentices in the United States, analyzes data reported in the Registered Apprenticeship Partners Information Database System (RAPIDS) from the U.S. Department of Labor to highlight structural barriers that Black apprentices face. To achieve racially equitable outcomes in apprenticeship programs, policymakers and apprenticeship coordinators must understand these challenges.
TWC’s Transit Workforce Data Dashboard
Launched in March, 2023, the Transit Workforce Data Dashboard presents quantitative, descriptive data about the composition of the transit workforce and trends in transit employment using a series of charts and graphics. This information is relevant for industry discussions in a range of contexts, including: strategic workforce planning in recruitment, retention, and other areas; examining and addressing opportunities and challenges related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and access; and identifying training and funding needs.
Transit Workforce Center
March 2023
Apprenticeship Training Courses
This series of free online training courses will help transit providers and others plan for, create, and sustain registered apprenticeship programs. Several courses have already been released and others are forthcoming.
Jobs for the Future
March 2023
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Career Pathways , Mentorship , Trainer and Mentor Development , Training
Transit Workforce Shortage: Synthesis Report and Toolkit
The Transit Workforce Shortage Study builds a framework for APTA, its members, and its partner organizations to better understand the workforce shortage’s causes and provides best practices for recruiting, hiring, and retaining transit operations workers.
American Public Transportation Association
March 2023
TOPICS: Hiring and Recruitment , Policy and Planning , Retention , Workforce Shortage
APTA’s Transit Workforce Shortage Study combines information from a survey of public transit workers and interviews with public transportation agencies to provide insight into ways to address the national shortage of transit workers. The report provides information on actions agencies have taken to address the workforce shortage, and the toolkit provides step-by-step answers to workforce shortage scenarios agencies are facing every day.
This report builds on findings from the first interim report.
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
How Neutral Third-Party Intervention Can Improve Retention in the Transit Industry
This study proposes methods that follow transformative mediation in order to improve hiring and retention at transit agencies and other companies by providing an organizational culture that respects each person’s dignity, identity, and opinions.
Mineta Transportation Institute
March 2023
Grant Application Checklist for a Strong Transportation Workforce and Labor Plan
This checklist provides information on the components of an ideal labor plan when applying to DOT discretionary grants in order to best meet the criteria for a strong workforce. The checklist prompts grant applicants to consider their labor-management partnerships, workforce training and education, and hiring and retaining underrepresented workers.
US Department of Transportation
February 2023
TOPICS: Funding Opportunities , Policy and Planning
A Framework to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in Workforce Development in the Southeast States
This project developed a framework for creating an inclusive and functional workforce environment for transportation agencies in the southeast region. The project identifies existing gaps, predicts future needs, and captures the role transportation agencies, research centers, DOTs, and professional organizations can play to recruit, train, and maintain a diverse and inclusive workforce.
Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center
February 2023
Trade and Transportation Talent Pipeline Blueprints: Building University-Industry Talent Pipelines in Colleges of Continuing and Professional Education
This report identifies the steps required to build talent pipelines that target in-demand trade and transportation occupations requiring specific degrees, certificates, and non-credit professional development and provides a literature review and labor market data analysis. It also includes documentation of methodology in planning a pilot program for Colleges of Professional and Continuing Education housed within each of the 23 California State University campuses.
Mineta Transportation Institute
February 2023
TOPICS: Career Pathways , Hiring and Recruitment , Policy and Planning , Training
Community Transportation Map and Database
The National Center for Mobility Management developed a national transit database depicting the approximate location of transit agencies and organizations across the United States. The database combines existing datasets with new research to create an exhaustive list of organizations that provide transportation services to communities across the country. It contains public transit providers, community action agencies, senior centers, and others that provide transportation.
National Center for Mobility Management
January 2023
TOPICS: Policy and Planning
Labor-Management Partnerships
This page from the US Department of Labor explains the benefits of labor-management partnerships, successful examples of partnerships, how successful labor-management partnerships help workers and employers, and provides additional resources for support.
Department of Labor
January 2023
RESOURCE TYPE: Training Programs | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Violence in the Transit Workplace – Prevention, Response and Recovery (Train the Trainer)
The goal of this course is to provide participants with knowledge and skills to deliver training to transit agency personnel on how to prevent, respond to, and recover from workplace violence. Prevention methods covered include implementing system and personal security measures, recognizing and reporting the warning signs of potentially violent behavior and using effective interpersonal skills for dealing with different, difficult and dangerous people.
National Transit Institute
You can register for the course with the Rutgers University Noncredit Course Catalog & Registration System.
RESOURCE TYPE: Presentations | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Making Connections 2022 – Conference Overview and Videos
The Transit Workforce Center hosted Making Connections 2022: The National Transit Workforce Conference in Washington, D.C. on December 13-14, 2022. This conference brought together participants from urban, suburban, rural, and tribal public transportation and industry stakeholders in plenaries, workshops, networking, and ongoing dialogue. Discussions and sessions featured topics including recruitment and retention, training, mentoring and apprenticeships, new technologies, preparing today’s and tomorrow’s workforce, and advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and access.
Transit Workforce Center
December 2022
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Career Pathways , Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access , Hiring and Recruitment , Labor-Management Partnerships , Making Connections Conference , Mentorship , Program Evaluation and ROI , Retention , Safety and Health , Trainer and Mentor Development , Training , Zero Emission Buses
Session materials from Making Connections 2022 are hosted on the TWC Resource Center. Please click here to view all related materials. A PDF copy of the conference schedule is linked below.
Opening Video:
Recap Video:
RESOURCE TYPE: Presentations | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Making Connections 2022 – Out of the Box Strategies: Using Partnerships to Strengthen Recruitment, Retention and the Advancement of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access
This session about DEIA advancement was presented as part of TWC’s Making Connections 2022 transit workforce conference in December, 2022.
Transit Workforce Center
December 2022
Session Summary: This session featured cutting-edge partnership strategies that advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and access while strengthening recruitment and retention. Representatives from transit labor and management, education, and national and local transit supporters and stakeholders provided a range of perspectives, while discussing innovative programs and initiatives along with their positive outcomes.
Moderator
- Jess Guerra: Executive Director, Transportation Workforce Institute – Los Angeles Trade Technical College
Speakers
- Mona Babauta: Deputy General Manager – Golden Gate Transit
- Rich Diaz: Golden Gate Transit Mentor Coordinator – Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1575
- Meghna Khanna: Senior Director, Systemwide Team, Mobility Corridors – Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
- Judy Shanley: Director – National Center for Mobility Management; Assistant Vice-President, Education & Youth Transition Programs, Easter Seals Director – National Center for Mobility Management
- Tracy Spikes: Workforce Development Program Manager – Central Ohio Transit Authority
- John Tkach: Executive Director – Keystone Development Partnership
- Jarvis Williams: President – Transport Workers Union Local 208
RESOURCE TYPE: Presentations | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Making Connections 2022 – Transit Instructional Systems Design Boot Camp
This session about instructional systems design was presented as part of TWC’s Making Connections 2022 transit workforce conference in December, 2022.
Transit Workforce Center
December 2022
TOPICS: Making Connections Conference , Training
Session Summary: From Adult Learning Theory to measurable learning objectives to learning models that are proven to enhance understanding and retention – the highly interactive Transit Instructional Systems Design Boot Camp was designed to help participants gain a basic working knowledge of the full ISD process. Based on Chuck Hodell’s best-selling book, ISD From the Ground Up, this session introduced transit trainers and managers to the widely-used and theory-supported system of instructional design practice that provides the foundation for today’s transit classroom and field instruction.
Moderator
- Julie Deibel-Pundt: Program Director, Instructional Design – International Transportation Learning Center/Transit Workforce Center
Speakers
- Dennise Cardona: Digital Content Manager – University of Maryland Baltimore County
- Chuck Hodell: Affiliate Professor – University of Maryland School of Pharmacy; Faculty Lecturer – Northeastern University; Academic Advisor – International Masonry Training and Education Foundation
RESOURCE TYPE: Presentations | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Making Connections 2022 – Growing Your Own Through Apprenticeship: A Joint Approach to Building Skills
This session about apprenticeship was presented as part of TWC’s Making Connections 2022 transit workforce conference in December, 2022.
Transit Workforce Center
December 2022
Session Summary: Apprenticeship programs create a foundation for strong, effective workforce development programs. The ability to build and sustain these programs requires strong labor-management partnerships, or, in the case of nonunion agencies, ongoing involvement of, and management engagement with, the frontline workforce. In this session, panelists from a diverse group of transit agencies presented examples of challenges met and lessons learned as they designed and implemented their apprenticeship programs. Attendees heard how apprenticeship can support a variety of frontline transit occupations and the benefits that apprenticeship offers.
Moderator
- Jamaine “G” Gibson: Director of Apprenticeships and Workforce Development – Amalgamated Transit Union
Speakers
- Dexter Bishop: Elevator/Escalator Journeyman – Amalgamated Transit Union/Local 689
- Stephanie Deiger: Chief Human Resources Officer – Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
- Brian Funk: Chief Operating Officer and Deputy General Manager – MetroTransit Minneapolis
- Michael Hanssen: Supervisor of Technical Skills Training – Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
- Alec Johnson: Bus Operator Apprenticeship Coordinator – MetroTransit Minneapolis/Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005
RESOURCE TYPE: Presentations | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Making Connections 2022 – Hands-On Instructional Training for Transit Trainers
This session about hands-on instructional training was presented as part of TWC’s Making Connections 2022 transit workforce conference in December, 2022.
Transit Workforce Center
December 2022
Session Summary: Hands-on instructional training is a critical piece to any organization’s training program. This workshop addressed hands-on training and its importance, best practices, lessons learned, and how to create effective hands-on training. Workshop participants observed hands-on welding simulation. The goal of this session was for participants to leave with the knowledge and resources to make hands-on training impactful and meaningful!
Moderators
- Kristen Ribaudo: Instructional Systems Design Consultant – International Transportation Learning Center/Transit Workforce Center
- Grant Young: Instructional Systems Design Consultant – International Transportation Learning Center/Transit Workforce Center
Speakers
- Ed Hogan: Chief Welding Instructor – Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
- Grace Kuka: Welding Instructor – Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
RESOURCE TYPE: Presentations | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Making Connections 2022 – Designing an Impactful Training Program: Linking Program Design to Classroom Learning and On-The-Job Training for Transit Frontline Workers
This session about program design was presented as part of TWC’s Making Connections 2022 transit workforce conference in December, 2022.
Transit Workforce Center
December 2022
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Making Connections Conference , Retention , Training
Session Summary: This workshop covered the basic building blocks of program design. Participants evaluated the pieces needed to develop a robust program that enables trainers to link good program design to effective classroom and on-the-job learning. This workshop was relevant to those looking to build new programs or refine current programs.
Moderator
- Grant Young: Instructional Systems Design Consultant – International Transportation Learning Center/Transit Workforce Center
Speakers
- Mike Glaeser: Manager, Bus Maintenance Training – Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
- Colleen May: Senior Director of Training – Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
- Danielle Wallace: Apprenticeship and Pathways Manager – King County Metro Transit
RESOURCE TYPE: Presentations | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Making Connections 2022 – Moving Forward Together: Creating and Sustaining Successful Labor-Management Partnerships
This session about labor-management partnerships was presented as part of TWC’s Making Connections 2022 transit workforce conference in December, 2022.
Transit Workforce Center
December 2022
Session Summary: Across the country, strong labor-management partnerships underlie many of the most effective public transportation recruitment, retention, career development, and advancement programs. In this session, experienced subject-matter experts from transit and from government discussed the importance and impact of these partnerships, provided program examples and outcomes, and highlighted key components in establishing and maintaining these relationships.
Moderators
- Brian Turner: Founding Director – International Transportation Learning Center
Speakers
- Shirley Block: President/Business Representative – Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757
- Jamaine “G” Gibson: Director of Apprenticeships and Workforce Development – Amalgamated Transit Union
- Andrew Hasty: Senior Advisor – U.S Department of Labor’s Office of Labor Management Standards; Commissioner – Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
- Nate Holton: Director of Labor Relations – TriMet
- Denise Jenkins-Agurs: Chief People Officer – IndyGo
- Charles Jenkins: Director – New York City Transit Training & Upgrading Fund/Transport Workers Union Local 100
- Darnice Marsh: Labor Management Partnership Coordinator – U.S. Department of Labor
Making Connections 2022 – Meeting Industry Needs: Feedback Session on FTA’s Draft Strategic Workforce Development Plan
Transit Workforce Center & Federal Transit Administration
December 2022
Feedback collected during this session and in subsequent engagements informed the development of FTA’s National Transit Workforce Development Strategic Plan 2023 to 2028, which has since been released.
Speakers
- Mary Leary: Acting Associate Administrator for Research, Demonstration and Innovation – Federal Transit Administration
This handout was shared with participants in a feedback session held during TWC’s Making Connections 2022 transit workforce conference in December, 2022.
RESOURCE TYPE: Fact Sheets | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Enhanced Transit Safety and Crime Prevention Initiative FTA Funding Sources Factsheet
To help ensure the continued safety of our nation’s public transit systems, FTA launched the Enhanced Transit Safety and Crime Prevention Initiative to provide information and resources to help transit agencies address and prevent crime on their systems and protect transit workers and riders.
Federal Transit Administration
November 2022
TOPICS: Funding Opportunities , Safety and Health
Expanding Apprenticeship: Return on Investment (ROI)
This is the landing page for Apprenticeship ROI resources on the WorkforceGPS website (sponsored by the Employment and Training Administration of the US Department of Labor). It is updated periodically and includes recent publications released as part of the evaluation of the American Apprenticeship Initiative. These resources attest to the value of apprenticeship programs for organizations and for workers.
WorkforceGPS
November 2022
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Program Evaluation and ROI
Employers can support workers’ economic mobility and their own bottom lines
This article provides a concise description of several strategies employers can use to create clear advancement pathways in their workplaces, which will help attract and retain quality candidates. It discusses research around what modern-day employees are looking for in a workplace and a position. It also links to a related article, which provides an overview of the framework created by Jobs for the Future (JFF) to describe the components of a good job.
WorkRise
November 2022
Online Learning and Learning Technologies Webinar
On October 25, 2022, TWC hosted an exciting webinar that explores online training, best practices in training delivery, and exciting trends in online technology for the transit industry.
Transit Workforce Center
October 2022
TOPICS: Training
Building Pathways to Infrastructure Careers: Framework for Preparing an Infrastructure Workforce
This resource provides a framework for all workforce stakeholders, including infrastructure project leads, to engage the public workforce system in implementing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law with strong workforce commitments and proven strategies that produce high-quality education, training, and employment opportunities for all workers.
U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
October 2022
How to Maintain a Frontline Workforce in 2022
TransitCenter
October 2022
TOPICS: Hiring and Recruitment , Retention
This blog post considers steps taken by transit agencies in New York City and San Diego in order to bolster and maintain their frontline workforces in the aftermath of the pandemic and years of labor shortages in the transit industry. The post describes actions like increasing wages, easing CDL requirements, and increasing recruitment efforts.
Steps for Transportation Workforce Diversity Outlined in TRB’s Research
This blog post highlights resources for improving inclusion and diversity in the transportation workforce.
Transportation Research Board
October 2022
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Women in the Workplace 2022
Women in the Workplace is the largest study on the state of women in corporate America. In 2015, LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company launched the study to give companies insights and tools to advance gender diversity in the workplace. The summary from WTS International outlines the report’s implications for the transportation workforce.
LeanIn.Org; McKinsey & Company; WTS International
October 2022
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Transit Workforce Shortage: Root Causes, Potential Solutions, and the Road Ahead
American Public Transportation Association
October 2022
TOPICS: Hiring and Recruitment , Policy and Planning , Retention , Workforce Shortage
Public transit providers across North America face a shortage of operators and mechanics during a period of economic instability and reshuffling exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, agencies’ ability to respond to the worker shortage has been hampered by inadequate information about its causes and effects. The Transit Workforce Shortage Study builds a framework for APTA, its members, and its partner organizations to better understand the workforce shortage’s causes and provides best practices for recruiting, hiring, and retaining transit operations workers. The study is comprised of two phases. This document, the Interim Findings Report, synthesizes the findings from Phase 1, which included a survey of transit agencies and background research into the macro causes of the shortage.
This report was followed by a full synthesis report and toolkit.
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Attracting, Retaining, and Developing the 2030 Transportation Workforce
This report provides a guide with specific strategies and action plans to help agencies identify and address workforce needs through 2030 and beyond.
National Cooperative Highway Research Program
October 2022
State departments of transportation are responsible for providing a safe, efficient, and effective transportation system of infrastructure and services. To meet these responsibilities, transportation agencies need a highly skilled workforce with the expertise required to identify and address current transportation needs while also being prepared to address the challenges of the future.
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; National Cooperative Highway Research Program; Candace Blair Cronin; Allison Alexander; Grace Arnold; Juan Carlos Batarse; Kelly Dray; Sasha Iliev; Jessica Jenkins; Erik Smallwood; Rachel Smart; Jake Streng; Mara Campbell; Susan Gallagher; Tyler Reeb; Tom O’Brien; Glenn McRae
Improving the Safety, Health, and Productivity of Transit Operators Through Adequate Restroom Access
This report presents a catalog of good practices, tools, and resources that provide a foundation for implementable strategies to improve restroom access, primarily for transit vehicle operators. The report compiles research from 100 transit agencies on current and best practices; the impact of restroom access on health, safety, and operations, and lessons learned.
Transit Cooperative Research Program
October 2022
TOPICS: Policy and Planning , Safety and Health
A toolbox accompanying the report includes helpful resources such as restroom inventory, planning, and cost estimation tools, as well as templates for restroom access policies and contract language.
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; Transit Cooperative Research Program; Robin Mary Gillespie, City University of New York; RLS & Associates Robbie Sarles
ATTAIN Rail/Signals/Traction Power and Facilities/Elevator-Escalator Committees Meeting
This recorded meeting of the ATTAIN committees for Rail/Signals/Traction Power and Facilities/Elevator-Escalator serves as a resource for transit industry stakeholders and includes presentations on apprenticeship and case studies of successful programs across the country.
Transit Workforce Center
September 2022
The American Transit Training and Apprenticeship Innovators Network (ATTAIN), run by the Transit Workforce Center (TWC), is a peer network created for transit agencies and labor unions to explore new apprenticeship programs or enhance existing programs for their frontline workforce.
RESOURCE TYPE: Case Studies | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Recruiting Seniors and Retirees at Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority
Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority; Transit Workforce Center
September 2022
Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority (CCRTA) in Massachusetts serves 15 towns within a 400 square miles area in an area where the population triples in the summer with seasonal residents. CCRTA runs seven year-round fixed route lines, several on-demand and hybrid on-demand services, and three summer shuttle services. In 2021, CCRTA served approximately 2.5 million people with 98 drivers.
Faced with driver shortages, CCRTA and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1548 worked together and negotiated driver raises and $1,000 bonuses paid after 90-days. In addition, a six-step salary scale to reach the top pay grade was reduced to two steps. Drivers can now reach the top pay level within two years.
Barnstable County’s senior population is among the largest per capita in the country, and CCRTA has instituted hiring initiatives aimed toward the senior and retiree population. In connecting with this population, CCRTA has taken a variety of actions, including:
- Reaching out through Cape Cod Elder Services to communicate CCRTA’s interest in hiring seniors. CCRTA’s Human Services Transportation Manager sits on this organization’s board, facilitating ongoing contact.
- Targeting recruitment of retiring teachers, firefighters, police, and school bus drivers. Cape Cod RTA staff visited schools, fire houses, police stations, and municipal offices to share recruitment information.
- Visited each town on Cape Cod, talked with local retirement agency officials, and posted and mailed banners and notices.
- Overall increase in the agency’s traditional and social media presence generally, including advertising explicitly aimed at seniors, including on social media. Developed advertising, messaging, and imagery to make seniors and retirees feel welcome. To see samples of advertising, visit Cape Cod RTA Jobs on Facebook, the ad on their website’s front page, and see the video, featuring older drivers, on the CCRTA career page.
- Emphasizing the short time it takes to reach the highest salary level, a compelling message for seniors and retirees, who often value salaries more than benefits, as well as the ability to reach the highest level within their time at the agency.
- Offering various employment options, including full-time and part-time, and seasonal. The agency has found that individual needs lead to varied choices; they estimate their senior employees have split 50-50 in what scheduling option they choose.
- Providing full CDL training, testing and additional agency-specific training for all employees without CDLs. The agency pays for all training.
- Offering options for non-CDL drivers, who operate smaller vans. The agency encourages the CDL route because it gives drivers more flexibility in shifts and allows them to work and get paid at a higher rate.
- Currently exploring working with the Barnstable County Retirement Commission to arrange for a notice about CCRTA employment options to be part of the Commission’s information packet when an employee puts in for retirement.
CCRTA values its older workforce and their commitment to the job; through its efforts, it has been able to hire a dozen seniors and retirees as drivers. The agency notes that with this population, it is reasonable to expect excellent attendance, while also allowing for the potential of more short-term disability and time for medical appointments. COVID-19 saw CCRTA lose about half of its senior workforce, given seniors’ sensitivity to exposure. However, CCRTA is renewing its recruitment efforts in this area through the various methods noted.
For more information, contact:
Penny Grossman, H.R. Manager – Pgrossman@capecodrta.org – 508-385-1430, ext. 106
Come Drive with (B)us – Akron METRO Operator Recruitment Event
Akron METRO Regional Transit Authority; Transit Workforce Center
September 2022
TOPICS: Hiring and Recruitment
Organizations
Akron METRO Regional Transit Authority (METRO): Transit agency serving Summit County, Ohio and the city of Akron, with a fleet totaling 231 vehicles: 140 large buses and 91 smaller paratransit vehicles. METRO employs 425 team members.
Stark State College: Local event venue and partner in advertising campaign. METRO is currently in the final stages of an agreement with Stark State to supplement its CDL training program.
Program Summary
METRO’s “Come Drive with (B)us” event was a major initiative designed to recruit bus operators. Held at Stark State College, the event featured on-site bus-related activities, interviews and job applications. Extensive outreach activities before the event through diverse outlets, combined with the themed ad campaign, brought 99 interested participants and resulted in 71 contingent offers. The key “draw” to this event was the ability to test drive our vehicles on a closed course alongside our staff. METRO’s idea was that if the thought of driving a bus was keeping people from applying, they could offer a nontraditional mechanism to overcome that hesitancy. Once that challenge was overcome, the process could focus on the soft skills related to empathy and great customer service that are critical to success.
Key Program Elements
- Pre-event publicity
- Pop Art themed ad campaign (viewable on Facebook; an example is attached below as a PDF)
- Free and purchased advertising through social media, including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter posts
- Information on METRO’s website
- Print ads in local daily and weekly publications
- Two digital billboards, and flyers on buses and posters at METRO’s transit center
- A radio ad on several local radio stations
- Two days before to the event, Stark State College promoted the event on their digital sign, readable from the expressway
- Four radio personalities from four different stations drove the bus two to three weeks prior to the event and promoted on the air, including one station that put together its own video.
- Television interviews that resulted in a full story and a variety of mentions of the event on other stations
- Creating two bus wraps with the pop art feel (see PDF below) on careers, though not event-specific
- Outreach to past applicants
- Videos of three in-house of staff driving for the first time, along with videos featuring County Executive and Representative Casey Weinstein, and an invite video from METRO’s CEO
- Event activities and design (see PDF of signage below)
- Participants were told to bring a valid driver’s license
- Four clearly-marked stations for applicants to go to where they had the opportunity to:
- Apply
- Interview
- Secure a mobility device
- Drive a bus
- Every applicant moved through all four stations
- At final stop, attendees received:
- Bag of information
- Swag
- Digital and paper copies of the CDL training booklet for them to start studying
- Event planning activities
- Started six to eight weeks before event
- Committee was made of HR, Marketing, Operations, Maintenance and Safety/Security
- Eighteen staff members worked the day of the event – five working check-in/applications, five doing on-site interviews, two working the mobility station, five running the “test drive” station, and one runner to move between all stations to relieve backlog
- Used seven 40 foot buses (2 spares) and 2 paratransit vehicles
Outcomes
- Ninety-nine event attendees interviewed and were able to test drive
- Twenty-five additional people applied who could not attend; follow up interviews were planned
- 71 of the 99 were moved through to a “contingent offer” pending background checks with a start date of September 26th
- Twenty-three of the 99 had areas of their application that required reviewing before proceeding
For more information on this event, contact: Jarrod Hampshire – Chief Operations Officer, METRO RTA 330.808.0144
More recruitment advertising materials and resources can be found here.
Recruiting and Retaining the Best: Transit Workforce Best Practices
This blog post from Transportation for America details successful strategies and best practices employed by transit agencies to empower their operator and maintenance workforces.
Transportation for America
September 2022
Transportation Learning Network (TLN)
The Transportation Learning Network (TLN) is part of an industry-wide effort aimed at strengthening transit training programs. It is designed and maintained by the International Transportation Learning Center, and provides a platform for accessing industry specific training materials – both for direct self-led online learning and also for download by trainers to use in a classroom or field settings. Topics covered include maintenance of transit elevators and escalators, signals, railcar and traction power.
International Transportation Learning Center
September 2022
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Safety and Health , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Wire Women: Lighting it Up
This illustrated publication tells the stories of women who are undertaking apprenticeship to become union electricians. This resource could be used by transit agencies, unions, or apprenticeship programs as promotional material or for educational purposes.
Sharon Szymanski
September 2022
Advancing Racial Equity through Federally Funded Public Transit, Bicycle, and Pedestrian Projects
This report provides data sources and tools to quantify racial equity and environmental justice in transportation-related projects. It also describes how the data can be used to speak to the equity priorities of grants available through the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act.
Urban Institute
September 2022
Second Chance Transit Programs
Several transit agencies across the country have established Second Chance programs to support formerly-incarcerated individuals as they reenter the workforce; these programs set pathways into frontline transit positions, often focusing on driver recruitment. These initiatives involve active collaboration between transit agencies and departments of corrections. Agencies have also worked with other partners, including their local unions, state and local workforce development agencies, ex-offender support programs, and local community organizations.
August 2022
Basic descriptions of some current state and local programs can be found at the links below.
IndyGo’s Employment Opportunities Page
The IndyGo transit agency, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, offers high-quality career information on its website. This resource summarizes effective elements of the career page.
IndyGo
August 2022
TOPICS: Career Pathways , Hiring and Recruitment
IndyGo’s career page helps site visitors to understand what it’s like to work at the agency and how to apply. The page also highlights key job benefits and emphasizes the opportunity to serve the community. Overall, the employment section of IndyGo’s website demonstrates a number of key communication elements that support effective outreach to potential applicants. These elements include:
- An easily accessible and identifiable section on the website. “Employment” has its own clickable category, not a subcategory that may be harder to locate.
- Clear statements about IndyGo’s mission, emphasizing community service, connection, and working together to make a difference in people’s lives. These messages attract a range of potential target audiences, and they make clear the difference between a public service career, as opposed to other careers applicants may be considering.
- A detailed list of benefits, with additional specific benefits for drivers noted. Among those benefits, the list includes unique aspects of the driver position that distinguishes it from other potentially competing careers (e.g., long-haul trucking), noting benefits such as “all local work.”
- Highlighted aspects of the driver position that emphasize the connection with and support provided to riders.
- A thoughtful list of questions for potential applicants to consider about themselves and the type of work they might want before they decide to move ahead with the application.
- Detailed information on how and where to apply, basics of how to prepare for and what to bring to an interview, and important specifics about the steps of the hiring process and initial orientation and training programs.
- IndyGo’s Why I Drive segment on their website includes a video featured in the National Frontline Workforce Recruitment Campaign Toolkit video library elsewhere on this website. That link on IndyGo’s website also features brief worker profiles, another summary of benefits, and a note on IndyGo’s Second Chance Initiative.
- IndyGo’s website includes a prominent option to translate the site into Spanish.
RESOURCE TYPE: Training Programs | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Train-the-Trainer Level 1: Adult Learning Theory and Teaching Techniques
The International Transportation Learning Center’s week-long, highly engaging train the trainer course teaches subject matter experts the skills to convey their vast knowledge to others in a classroom setting. Topics include: adult learning theory, teaching techniques and presentation skills. Participants will spend most of the week applying what they’re learning through rounds of practice teaching in a classroom, lab and field setting. They’ll also give and receive feedback from peers – one of the most important skills of a trainer!
Subsequent learning opportunities include Train-the-Trainer Level 2: Creating Courseware that Works.
International Transportation Learning Center
TOPICS: Safety and Health , Trainer and Mentor Development , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Training Programs | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Train-the-Trainer Level 2: Creating Courseware that Works
This week-long, interactive course, Train the Trainer Level 2, builds on Train the Trainer Level 1 by giving experienced trainers the skills to define, design and develop an effective and engaging training course and accompanying courseware and assessments, incorporating established adult learning principles. Participants apply this new knowledge by starting to develop materials for a course of their choosing, which would ultimately be taught at their location.
International Transportation Learning Center
TOPICS: Safety and Health , Trainer and Mentor Development , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Fact Sheets | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Veterans in Registered Apprenticeship
This fact sheet provides an overview of how veteran-specific public benefits can be applied to support a veteran’s completion of a registered apprenticeship program. It also provides links to resources for more detailed information on apprenticeship resources for service members, employment resources for veterans, and more.
ApprenticeshipUSA
August 2022
Pathway to Promote Diversity within Public Transit Workforce
Considering the transit industry’s existing diversity and inclusion toolkits and guidelines, this project emphasizes lessons from in-depth interviews with leaders from 18 transit agencies across the country. The report highlights: the critical factors that impact the current level of diversity and career mobility within transit agencies; how diversity efforts help explore resources and provide opportunities for effective and robust employee engagement; and the significance of evaluation systems in creating a more transparent recruitment process that initiates structural shifts, resulting in better recruiting.
Mineta Transportation Institute
August 2022
RESOURCE TYPE: Training Programs | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Mentor Training
Transit Workforce Center
TOPICS: Mentorship , Trainer and Mentor Development , Training
This workshop is designed for employees or journeyworkers designated as mentors to support on-the-job learning for apprenticeship programs. The content includes a review of mentor roles, an introduction to learning styles, and a facilitated discussion about communication and problem solving. The second half of the workshop includes role playing exercises for the participants to practice what they learned. The instructor leads the participants through a structured review of that experience and review of the mentoring concepts presented. The program acknowledges the wisdom of the mentors and encourages them to view themselves as ambassadors for the apprenticeship and advocates for the apprentices.
Please follow the link below for additional details and to submit a mentor training request.
Strategic Workforce Planning in Transit: Fundamentals of Mentoring
Transit Workforce Center
June 2022
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Mentorship , Retention , Trainer and Mentor Development
This is the third in the Transit Workforce Center’s webinar series on strategic workforce development planning in transit. Labor and management leaders from across the country discussed the impact of mentorship programs in their agencies.
Mentor programs provide a powerful and effective tool for workforce development and retention. For maintenance occupations, mentors deliver hands-on training support, putting skills in diverse workplace contexts beyond the classroom. For bus operators, mentors provide guidance that addresses real world situations, building and expanding on basic training and creating ongoing support for each new operator. In every transit agency across all occupations, seasoned employees have stores of knowledge waiting to be shared. Without mentorship, this knowledge can be lost when workers retire or move on. A well-structured mentorship program, designed in partnership with the workers, ensure this expertise is passed on. Strong mentorship programs also provide mentors with leadership opportunities and mentees with the skills and confidence they need to succeed, increasing expertise and morale throughout the organization.
Linked below are a video recording of the webinar, the associated slides, and a webpage where all past TWC webinars are available.
The Power of Partnership: Automotive Technology/Collision Career Technical Education Program
This multimedia case study details an internship program developed by the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) and Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 208. This resource contains a brief written summary, presentation slides, and video of a COTA-TWU Local 208 presentation. The entire June 7, 2022 TWC webinar, Recruiting and Developing Today’s Transit Workforce, can be found here. The complete webinar recording includes a question and answer session, beginning at 51:53, that covers more detail on this and other recruitment initiatives.
Transit Workforce Center; Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA); Transport Workers Union Local 208
June 2022
To meet its need for vehicle maintenance technicians, COTA leadership partnered with TWU Local 208 and Columbus City Schools to provide a Vehicle Maintenance Internship Program, helping students already enrolled in an automotive program to develop additional technology competencies and prepare them for entry level positions. The COTA Vehicle Maintenance Internship Program provides career technical center high school students who have completed their junior year in a participating career-technical program the opportunity to work as paid interns in the Vehicle Maintenance Department at COTA. Students receive classroom training, hands-on training, laboratory experiences, and are partnered with mentors in preparation to enter the workforce as entry level automotive/collision technologies service technicians. From this foundation, COTA has now established a state-registered pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship program to support vehicle technician hiring, retention, and workforce development.
Strategic Workforce Planning in Transit: Recruiting and Developing Today’s Transit Workforce
This is the second in the Transit Workforce Center’s webinar series on strategic workforce development planning in transit. TWC’s first webinar examined workforce development for the incumbent workforce. This second webinar focuses on how transit agencies and partner organizations are working to meet the significant recruitment challenges across the country and how to best turn these challenges into opportunities to reach, attract, and retain a diverse workforce. Two transit agencies and their labor partners discuss their innovative outreach and recruitment programs, including mentoring, pre-apprenticeships, and community college partnerships, followed by a presentation from a national organization leader who has coordinated cross-sectoral recruitment initiatives with agencies across the U.S.
Transit Workforce Center
June 2022
Linked below are a video recording of the webinar, the associated slides, and a webpage where all past TWC webinars are available.
Who Rules Transit?
This report examines who makes key decisions at transit agencies and who is affected by these decisions. The report provides case studies of agencies that have taken steps to give transit riders and workers more power in the decision-making process.
TransitCenter
April 2022
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Higher Education Practices to Prepare Future Transportation Professionals Regarding Disability, Accessibility, and Mobility Management
This National Center for Mobility Management (NCMM) Information Brief provides the results of a NCMM study regarding mobility management, disability, and accessibility content in higher education preparation programs. This brief offers recommendations regarding how to integrate such content, as well as information on the recruitment and retention of individuals with disabilities in the transportation industry.
Please click the link below to view NCMM’s Mobility Management in Practice Series; this brief is listed among several 2022 publications.
National Center for Mobility Management (NCMM)
April 2022
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Workforce Shortages Impacting Public Transportation Recovery
This policy brief summarizes results from a survey the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) conducted with transit agencies in early 2022. The majority of responding agencies reported difficulties with hiring, with bus operator recruitment being the biggest challenge.
American Public Transportation Association
March 2022
TOPICS: Hiring and Recruitment , Workforce Shortage
RESOURCE TYPE: Fact Sheets | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Transit Workforce Center
The Transit Workforce Center (TWC) is the Federal Transit Administration’s first ever national technical assistance center for transit workforce development. Its mission is to help urban, suburban, tribal, and rural public transportation entities recruit, hire, train, and retain the diverse workforce needed now and in the future.
This fact sheet summarizes the TWC’s mission, initiatives, and services.
Transit Workforce Center
March 2022
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Mentorship , Policy and Planning , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
FTA Annual Report on Technical Assistance and Workforce Development for FY 2021
This statutorily required annual report provides information on FTA’s Technical Assistance and Workforce Development Program (49 U.S.C. § 5314), including technical assistance, workforce development, standards, human resources, and training projects active in Fiscal Year 2021. The report also describes FTA’s process for making upcoming allocations for FY 2022.
Federal Transit Administration
January 2022
TOPICS: Policy and Planning
California Transit Training Consortium (CTTC)
The California Transit Training Consortium, founded as the Southern California Regional Transit Training Consortium, is comprised of community colleges, universities, transit agencies, and public and private partners collaborating to design, develop, and deliver technical training for the improvement of the transit workforce in California.
California Transit Training Consortium
TOPICS: Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Managing the Labor Shortage at Transit Agencies
This article examines labor shortages in the public transit industry. It focuses on the following points:
- Transit agencies across the United States are experiencing a significant shortage in labor, that the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened. This shortage is negatively impacting the services they provide to the public.
- Employees at transit agencies have a significantly higher median age than employees in other industries.
- Transit agencies should use data and information to consider recruiting and retaining employees for the long term.
Shared-Use Mobility Center
November 2021
TOPICS: Hiring and Recruitment , Retention , Workforce Shortage
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Promoting Interest in Transportation Careers Among Young Women
This research developed and tested a school-based intervention that uses pro-environmental framing and exposure to women transportation role models to help attract more women to transportation careers. The paper explains how this method increased student awareness that the transportation industry can provide green and sustainable careers, particularly for female students.
Mineta Transportation Institute
November 2021
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Workforce and Talent Management Study
This study provides an in-depth examination of the U.S workforce development system and offers nine recommendations to inform future policy development and keep the critical infrastructure workforce nimble in the face of change. The recommendations are guided by the principle that all workers must have equitable access to the education, training, and resources necessary to begin and advance in critical infrastructure careers
National Infrastructure Advisory Council
September 2021
TOPICS: Hiring and Recruitment , Policy and Planning
The Education/Career Readiness Continuum graphic on page 11 of the report might be useful to agencies considering comprehensive workforce development plans.
RESOURCE TYPE: Tools/Toolkits | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Building and Growing Apprenticeship with Equity in Mind
This toolkit was created to help those whose work involves designing and running pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs to intentionally encourage and support the inclusion of apprentices who reflect the full
diversity of our communities — in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, primary language, disability, age, sexual orientation, and other factors.
High Road Alliance
September 2021
Diversity and Inclusion in Registered Apprenticeship
This case study examines the NUL Consortium’s strategies for providing technical assistance to employers as they seek to promote and diversify their Registered Apprenticeship programs. It includes a best practices toolkit detailing EEO compliance, affirmative action planning, and NUL’s employer DEIA training. It seeks to serve as a replicable guide for industry, equity, and opportunity partners, community-based organizations, and other groups or individuals with similar goals.
National Urban League
July 2021
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Identifying Current and Future Training Needs of the Public Transportation Industry
This report documents a study commissioned by the National Transit Institute (NTI) as part of its work to address training needs. The study investigates skills gaps among the workforce of the U.S. public transportation industry, identifies strategies to address those gaps, and explores approaches to more successfully recruit and retain the full spectrum of the transit workforce, from frontline to technical to professional staff.
Federal Transit Administration; National Transit Institute
June 2021
TOPICS: Hiring and Recruitment , Policy and Planning , Retention
High School Students on Track for Transportation Careers
Mineta Transportation Institute
June 2021
This report provides an overview of the Mineta Summer Transportation Institute, one of the National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI) Programs, which recruits high-school students from diverse ethnic backgrounds, exposes them to a variety of academic and practical experiences in the transportation field in the Bay Area, and provides participating students with a variety of science, technology, and employment skills. The report shares program history, demographics, activities, etc.
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
FTA Annual Report on Technical Assistance and Workforce Development for FY 2020
This statutorily required annual report provides information on FTA’s Technical Assistance and Workforce Development Program (49 U.S.C. § 5314). It provides information on technical assistance, workforce development, standards, human resources, and training projects active in FY 2020. The report also includes information on FTA’s process for making upcoming allocations for FY 2021.
Federal Transit Administration
May 2021
Preparing for and Capturing Video Footage for Instructional Video
International Transportation Learning Center
March 2021
TOPICS: Trainer and Mentor Development , Training
Digital and video instruction are two ways in which transit agencies can enhance their current training methods for their frontline employees. In a previous skill booster event, we showcased video editing software Filmora™. But before you can edit video, you need to capture it. As videography expert and the presenter of this session Kenyon Corbett says, “there is no replacement for good audio and video.”
This video uses real-world examples to demonstrate the Dos and Don’ts of capturing video and audio for instructional videos. It also outlines how best to prepare for this process.
This is one of several skill booster events held by the International Transportation Learning Center (ITLC). Other webinars can be found by filtering by resource type.
APTA Transit Workforce Readiness Guide
APTA’s Transit Workforce Readiness Guide is a highly interactive and easy-to-use online resource for executives and their staff to assist organizations in building a more diverse talent pipeline by attracting high school students, especially those coming from underserved communities, into entry-level transit positions.
American Public Transportation Association
March 2021
Here to Stay: Black, Latina, and Afro-Latina Women in Construction Trades Apprenticeships and Employment
Chicago Women in the Trades; Institute for Women's Policy Research
March 2021
Effective Lesson Plans in Transportation
This research focuses on developing a suite of standards-aligned, rigorous lesson plans for secondary school teachers centered on transportation issues, such as the societal impact of autonomous vehicles, transportation safety, and traffic flow. It includes a report and lesson plans.
Mineta Transportation Institute
February 2021
TOPICS: Career Pathways , Policy and Planning
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Resource Guide for Improving Diversity and Inclusion Programs for the Public Transportation Industry
This TCRP Research Report 228 examines industry diversity programs, including how inclusion has been incorporated, and what policies, plans, and practices have been successfully implemented.
Transit Cooperative Research Program
January 2021
Advancing Opportunities for Women through Apprenticeship: A Case-Based Resource Guide
The Advancing Opportunities for Women through Apprenticeship case-based resource guide provides a framework for meaningful expansion of apprenticeship programs for women. The guide includes case studies on four high-quality, women-inclusive pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs in a range of industry sectors.
Department of Labor
The case studies were developed through on-site visits to the program locations; interviews with program staff, partners, and current and former participants; and a review of program materials and data. They provide information and insights related to partnership development, program design, and outcomes that outline how pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs can help women access family-sustaining jobs and quality career pathways. The guide identifies common strategies across the four programs to help others learn how to create programs that successfully open pathways to in-demand jobs for women through apprenticeships.
How Women Fare in the Transit Industry
This webinar provides an overview of the barriers and solutions to including more women in the transit industry. Panelists discuss strategies to support women in transit and share examples of transit agencies that have effectively implemented programs to attract, retain, and advance women in the industry.
Transportation Research Board
September 2020
The webinar draws on research from TCRP Synthesis 147: Attracting, Retaining, and Advancing Women in Transit.
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
FTA Annual Report on Technical Assistance and Workforce Development for FY 2019
This statutorily required annual report provides information on FTA’s Technical Assistance and Workforce Development Program (49 U.S.C. § 5314). This annual report provides information on any technical assistance, workforce development, standards, human resources, and training projects active in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019.
Federal Transit Administration
July 2020
Empowering a Resilient Transit Workforce
This webinar identifies critical labor market benchmarks and addresses ways to cultivate a more resilient and empowered transit workforce, particularly in the post-COVID world. The speakers delve into resiliency challenges and education and training solutions.
Eno Center of Transportation
June 2020
TOPICS: Hiring and Recruitment , Retention , Workforce Shortage
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Advancing Frontline Workforce Development Meeting: Synthesis
This report synthesizes findings from a two-day gathering of more than two dozen transit industry labor and management representatives who engaged in in-depth discussions on frontline workforce training needs across the U.S. The purpose of the meeting was to identify immediate, short-term, and long-term training needs for the frontline public transportation workforce in the U.S. and ways to connect apprenticeship and formal training programs to support these needs.
National Transit Institute; Federal Transit Administration; International Transportation Learning Center
February 2020
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Hiring and Recruitment , Policy and Planning , Training
Innovative Transit Workforce Development Projects of 2015: Summative Evaluation
This report provides the results of an evaluation of Innovative Transit Workforce Development Program projects awarded in Fiscal Year 2015. Based on a competitive application process, FTA awarded 16 workforce development projects to transit authorities, higher education institutions, Native American tribes, and nonprofit organizations individually or as a consortium.
Federal Transit Administration
February 2020
Attracting, Retaining, and Advancing Women in Transit
This TCRP report explores the strategies that have been deployed in transit and other related industries in order to attract, retain, and advance women in a variety of roles. It includes a survey of current representation of women, barriers faced, and diversity initiatives in the transportation industry, as well as case studies from several major transit agencies.
Transit Cooperative Research Program
January 2020
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; Transit Cooperative Research Program; ICF Allison Alexander
Apprenticeship is a Win-Win for Workers and Employers
These two case studies provide an analysis of apprenticeship programs at Baltimore Alliance for Careers in Healthcare (BACH) in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Guilford Apprenticeship Partners (GAP) in Greensboro, North Carolina. The case studies highlight the different approaches each organization used for their apprenticeship programs.
National Fund for Workforce Solutions
December 2019
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Building a Business Case for Increasing Diversity in the Transportation Workforce
This TR News article describes the importance of cultivating diversity in the transportation industry. It describes the current and future state of diversity in the country and workforce at large, and reviews existing research on the workplace benefits of diversity. It also provides several strategies for fostering diversity in the transportation industry and examples of transit stakeholders that have used those strategies.
Transportation Research Board
October 2019
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Innovative Transit Workforce Development Program: Key Lessons Learned
This report summarizes the impacts and lessons learned of individual project models, identifies transit workforce needs, and develops recommendations for the continuation or improvement of FTA’s workforce development efforts and investments.
Federal Transit Administration
September 2019
Training and Apprenticeships to Address Transit Workforce Gaps
This piece, penned by Jack Clark of the International Transportation Learning Center (ITLC), explores the role of training and apprenticeship programs in meeting workforce needs in transit, with a focus on operators. It discusses a few leading examples of apprenticeship programs in transit, as well as the role of mentorship in a strong apprenticeship program.
Eno Center for Transporation
August 2019
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Career Pathways , Mentorship , Training
Tool for Measuring the Cost of Turnover
This Cost of Turnover Tool is a simple, “back of the envelope” calculator to help estimate how much it costs to replace staff. The tool can be useful for transit agencies looking to understand the costs of a low retention rate, or those looking to calculate the return-on-investment of mentoring or apprenticeship programs.
Aspen Institute
March 2019
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Mentorship , Policy and Planning , Program Evaluation and ROI , Retention
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Attracting and Retaining Women in the Transportation Industry
This study synthesizes previously conducted research and identifies additional research needed to attract, promote, and retain women in the transportation industry, particularly emphasizing the importance of community-orientation and mentoring.
Mineta Transportation Institute
February 2019
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
FTA Annual Report on Technical Assistance and Workforce Development for FY 2018
This annual report to Congress provides information on Fiscal Year 2018 technical assistance, standards, human resources and training projects to improve public transportation as authorized by federal public transportation law (49 U.S.C. § 5314). The report also includes information on FTA’s process for making allocations for FY 2019.
Federal Transit Administration
February 2019
Innovative Transit Workforce Development Projects of 2012: Summative Evaluation
This report provides the results of the Innovative Transit Workforce Development Program Evaluation of projects awarded in Fiscal Year 2012. FTA awarded a total of $7,048,898 for 16 workforce development projects. Recipients included transit authorities, higher education institutions, Native American tribes, and nonprofit organizations.
Federal Transit Administration
February 2019
Transportation Workforce Planning and Development Strategies
This report is a synthesis of the current state of practice associated with the implementation of transportation workforce planning and development strategies at state departments of transportation (DOTs) and associated local and tribal technical assistance programs (LTAPs/TTAPs). The synthesis includes a literature review and survey results of both state DOTs and LTAPs, as well as case studies of five state DOTs, presenting an in-depth analysis of processes and considerations, challenges, lessons learned, and keys to success.
National Cooperative Highway Research Program
January 2019
TOPICS: Policy and Planning
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; National Cooperative Highway Research Program; Robert Puentes; Alice Grossman; Brianne Eby; Alex Bond
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Setting the Standard for Transit Apprenticeships
This article in In Transit summarizes The Amalgamated Transit Union’s (ATU’s) and the International Transportation Learning Center’s (ITLC’s) efforts to promote apprenticeship program development. It discusses apprenticeship programs at several transit agencies and ATU locals, as well as the role of mentorship in a successful apprenticeship program.
Amalgamated Transit Union
September 2018
Equity from the Frontline: Workers’ Insight and Leadership Supports a Network of Apprenticeships in Transit
This case study, part of the Equity in Apprenticeship report series from COWS at UW-Madison, explores the Joint Workforce Investment in the South Bay Valley Transportation Authority, which has developed a web of apprenticeships and advancement opportunities. The series highlights programs that use apprenticeship and mentorship to extend occupational opportunity to historically marginalized groups, especially people of color and women.
COWS at University of Wisconsin
August 2018
Tools and Strategies for Eliminating Assaults Against Transit Operators
This TCRP report documents policies, practices, and operating procedures related to preventing, mitigating, and responding to operator assaults. The varied format, scale, and implementation of policies and procedures set by transit agencies can shape mitigation approaches. Relevant skills and training required by transit operators to address this issue vary as well.
Transit Cooperative Research Program
May 2018
TOPICS: Policy and Planning , Safety and Health
Volume 1 documents the materials used to develop the report and Volume 2, the user guide, provides potential countermeasures and strategies to prevent or mitigate assaults against transit operators, including an operator assault risk management toolbox, vulnerability self-assessment tool, route-based risk calculator, as well as supportive checklists, guidelines, and methodologies.
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; Transit Cooperative Research Program; Countermeasures Assessment and Security Experts, LLC and Transportation Resource Associates, Inc.
TCRP Research Report 199: Transit Technical Training (Volumes 1 & 2)
TCRP Research Report 199: Transit Technical Training is a two-volume set that presents guidance on technical training programs and the implementation of those for transportation agencies.
The report’s first volume, Guide to Applying Best Practices and Sharing Resources, documents the best models of technical training programs serving U.S. and international transportation agencies and related industries.
The second volume, Guide to Overcoming Barriers to Implementing Best and Innovative Training, provides public transportation agencies with best practices, strategies, and resources to assist with the implementation of effective and innovative training programs and techniques for frontline employees.
Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP)
January 2018
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Safety and Health , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Presentations | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Training for New Technologies Workshop
This slide presentation is from the “Training for New Technologies” workshop held during the International Transportation Learning Center’s Making Connections conference held on October 26, 2017.
International Transportation Learning Center
Moving Forward: Toward Women’s Equity and Inclusion in the Rail and Transit Sector
International Transportation Learning Center; Chicago Women in the Trades
July 2017
This toolkit is premised on the understanding that transit agencies have little knowledge of and tools for recruiting and assessing new female entrants to the workforce and promoting incumbent workers for skilled trade jobs in rail and transit. It also recognizes that women themselves have little information about the entry routes, requirements and benefits of jobs in these fields and without targeted and concerted effort from either the companies, agencies, unions, workforce development system, and educational institutions, most women will continue to be steered towards traditional female careers.
The resources in this toolkit will support the recruitment, training, and retention of women in nontraditional apprenticeship and jobs in the rail and transit sector. The toolkit can be used by program planners, managers, and frontline staff conducting outreach and assessment and training, to ensure that each stage of the employment process—from recruitment through retention—looks at how the workplace environment can be responsive to women of many backgrounds and how systems can be created or improved to address the barriers women face.
Addressing Difficult Customer Situations
This report considers issues surrounding difficult customers or passengers and the variety of circumstances that can arise when they utilize transit system facilities or vehicles. It identifies current practices used by transit agencies to prevent, prepare for, and deal with these incidents, including training programs for operators and other staff.
Transit Cooperative Research Program
March 2017
TOPICS: Policy and Planning , Safety and Health , Training
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; Transit Cooperative Research Program Synthesis Program; Synthesis Program; Transit Cooperative Research Program; Joel M. Volinski
RESOURCE TYPE: Tools/Toolkits | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Troops to Transit: A Resource for Recruiting and Developing Veterans for Public Transportation Careers
The International Transportation Learning Center’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data has shown that the transportation industry in large will likely see a massive front-line labor shortage in the next ten years unless it is able to find and hire skilled workers. In fact, it is estimated that 126 percent of today’s transit workforce will have to be hired and trained in the next ten years.
In order to help fill this need, the center has produced a Veterans Crosswalk tool (see Excel document below) which matches skill-sets learned during military service with the kinds of skills that public transportation agencies look for when hiring signals maintainers. This product was produced in cooperation with a Veterans Taskforce made up of veterans who are also Subject Matter Experts in the field of Signals Maintenance. This detailed matrix has been distilled down into a user-friendly Veteran’s Factsheet (see PDF below) which provides at-a-glance information for both veterans interested in a signals career and for agencies looking to hire skilled veterans.
The tool is accompanied by a summary report.
International Transportation Learning Center
November 2016
Maintenance Technician Staffing Levels for Modern Public Transit Fleets
This report identifies existing tools and practices used to determine optimum maintenance technician staffing levels and provides an analysis of variables that influence maintenance technician staffing needs. A Microsoft Excel maintenance staffing calculator and user guide is available.
Transit Cooperative Research Program
August 2016
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; Transit Cooperative Research Program; Ken Mall; June Sekera; the Transportation Learning Center and Transit Resource Center
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Innovative Transit Workforce Development Projects of 2011
This report provides the results of the Innovative Transit Workforce Program Evaluation of projects awarded in fiscal year 2011. The evaluation was conducted via review of updates and final report submitted by grantees and telephone interviews with grantees.
Federal Transit Administration
April 2016
A Guide for the Development of Career Pathways in Transportation
This guide outlines the steps that transportation industry stakeholders can take to develop or expand Career Pathways to focus on the skills, competencies, and credentials needed for high-demand jobs in the transportation industry and its subsectors.
U.S. Department of Education; Jobs for the Future; International Transportation Learning Center
December 2015
RESOURCE TYPE: Case Studies | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
From Operator to Chief – One Employee’s Story
This video provides a description of King County DOT’s program for recruitment and advancement options for current employees, with an emphasis on diversity, along with one employees’ story about how he was supported in his journey from bus operator to Base Chief.
King County Department of Transportation
October 2015
TOPICS: Career Pathways , Hiring and Recruitment , Retention , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Strengthening Skills Training and Career Pathways Across the Transportation Industry
This report identifies high-demand jobs with good wages in transportation, discusses the role data plays in identifying future workforce skill needs, and analyzes the patterns in the education and work experience required for entry, as well as on-the-job training required for new entrants to gain full competency.
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education; U.S. Department of Transportation
August 2015
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Career Pathways , Hiring and Recruitment , Training
Preventing and Mitigating Transit Worker Assaults in the Bus and Rail Transit Industry
This report provides recommendations from state and local transportation agencies, labor unions, research organizations, and national transportation associations to address the elements of a safety management system (SMS) approach to preventing and mitigating transit worker assaults, including policy, risk management, safety promotion, and safety assurance.
Transit Advisory Committee for Safety
July 2015
TOPICS: Retention , Safety and Health
Selected Public Workforce Development Programs in the United States: Lessons Learned for Older Workers
This report provides a selective review of public workforce development programs in the United States over the past 80 years, placing special emphasis on the importance these programs have to older Americans. It discusses how the public workforce system developed, how it operates today, significant programs and target groups, common employment services and job training strategies, and what is known about program effectiveness.
American Association of Retired Persons
March 2015
RESOURCE TYPE: Tools/Toolkits | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Labor-Management Partnerships for Public Transportation, Volume 1: Toolkit
This toolkit provides resources for public transportation management and labor union leaders to establish, manage, and improve labor-management partnerships. It includes a description of the development of a labor-management partnership charter, recommended actions for both management and labor union leaders, and a workshop framework to prepare management and union representatives with essential skills for establishing and managing labor-management partnerships.
Transit Cooperative Research Program
January 2015
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Labor-Management Partnerships , Training
Volume 2 of this report provides background material that was used to develop this toolkit.
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; Transit Cooperative Research Program; Scott Baker; Chuyuan (Viktor) Zhong; Douglas Taylor; William F. Scott; Richard Plante
A National Training and Certification Program for Transit Vehicle Maintenance Instructors
This TCRP report provides a proposed national program structure and plan for training and certifying transit bus and rail maintenance instructors. The report also provides best practices used in the public and private sectors to prepare and certify technical instructors, as well as the attributes and instructional delivery methods found most effective for maintenance instructors.
Transit Cooperative Research Program
January 2015
TOPICS: Trainer and Mentor Development , Training
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; Transit Cooperative Research Program Synthesis Program; Transit Cooperative Research Program; Transportation Learning Center; Educational Data Systems Inc
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Labor-Management Partnerships for Public Transportation, Volume 2: Final Report
This TCRP report documents the materials used to develop the Volume 1: Toolkit, including an industry survey and case studies. Volume 1 provides resources for public transportation management and labor union leaders to establish, manage, and improve labor–management partnerships.
Transit Cooperative Research Program
January 2015
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Labor-Management Partnerships , Training
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; Transit Cooperative Research Program; Scott Baker; Chuyuan (Viktor) Zhong; Douglas Taylor; William F. Scott; Richard Plante
National Apprenticeship Guidelines for Transit Elevator-Escalator Maintenance Technician
The purpose of these National Guidelines for Apprenticeship Standards (National Guideline Standards) is to provide policy and guidance to local Sponsors in developing these Standards for Apprenticeship for local approval and registration. These National Guideline Standards developed by the Sponsor are certified by the U. S. Department of Labor, Office of Apprenticeship as substantially conforming to the requirements of Title 29, CFR parts 29 and 30. State Apprenticeship Agencies recognized by the Office of Apprenticeship to register local programs, and/or local laws and regulations, may impose additional requirements that must be addressed in the local apprenticeship standards.
International Transportation Learning Center & National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (NJATC)
January 2014
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Policy and Planning , Training
Pathways to Equity: Effective Transportation Career Partnerships
Expanding access to quality careers in transit systems and in transit capital construction has been the focus of innovative local programs around the country in recent years. This report presents case profiles of two of the most promising examples – one for youth Career Pathways into transit industry careers, and one for targeted construction hiring and training of disadvantaged workers for transit capital projects. The two local case profiles are a Project Labor Agreement in Los Angeles providing expanded access to jobs and training for public transportation capital construction and a youth Career Pathways partnership in Philadelphia linking career and technical education with future transit careers. Both of these models, if taken to scale in the transit industry, can have positive impacts, locally and nationally, for improving access to family-sustaining careers and training and for improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged groups – urban low-income and minority groups as well as women – who have previously been under-represented in these occupations.
International Transportation Learning Center
December 2013
Promoting Employment in Transit Construction Projects by Members of Minority and Low Income Communities
This report summarizes research investigating the participation of members of low-income and minority populations in employment generated by transit projects and identifies practices to increase their participation. It features four in-depth case studies of light rail projects.
Federal Transit Administration
July 2013
RESOURCE TYPE: Tools/Toolkits | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Transit Maintenance Mentoring Guidebook
The purpose of this report is to serve as a guidebook, offering information that transit agencies can use to establish mentoring as a training method with guidance, suggestions, and examples to implement or expand upon existing mentoring programs. It is based on a generic mentoring guidebook developed by the USDOT, modified and enhanced to reflect transit maintenance applications.
International Transportation Learning Center
November 2012
RESOURCE TYPE: Case Studies | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Transit Green Jobs Training Partnership
The Department of Labor selected the Transportation Learning Center as a Green Jobs funds recipient because the Center has been at the forefront of addressing the issue of insufficient training in the transit industry and building constructive partnerships between labor and management to address this critical issue. The grant succeeded in creating new training approaches and providing training to thousands of workers in key transit occupations, with a consistent focus on greening the economy and our communities.
The Green Jobs Training Partnership is built on the Center’s successful model of creating and supporting labor-management partnerships to plan and deliver transit training that provides instruction based on national standards. The Partnerships plan and carry out training, to help transit employees obtain the skills they need to stay current in an industry that is ever changing.
International Transportation Learning Center
August 2012
TOPICS: Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Tools/Toolkits | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Method and Processes for Transit Training Metrics and Return on Investment
This guidebook was developed by the ITLC to help transit agencies determine benefits and return on investment (ROI) stemming from their training programs.
International Transportation Learning Center
September 2011
TOPICS: Program Evaluation and ROI
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Dialogue for Women in Blue-Collar Transportation Careers
This short summary report describes unique challenges and recommendations regarding women in blue-collar positions in transportation.
US Department of Transportation
September 2011
Quality Training Pays: Training Investment Pays for Itself Six Times Over
You never know how well you are doing until you find metrics with which you can measure outcomes. The Transportation Learning Center has capitalized on this insight through a series of in-depth research reports chronicling work by labor-management partnerships in Philadelphia, PA and Albany, NY. This fact sheet outlines these findings and shows a substantial return on training investment.
International Transportation Learning Center
June 2011
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Learning by Doing: Hands-On Training for Transportation Technicians
Today, formal training is absolutely essential to produce technicians capable of providing safe, efficient and cost-effective transport services. The consequences of jeopardizing passenger and public safety are just too great to turn inexperienced workers loose on advanced transit vehicles without proper training, hoping they will learn “as they go.” The question becomes how best to construct an effective training program.
This paper, from the International Transportation Learning Center, examines the subject of technical training and advocates “learning by doing” as an essential element to acquiring needed technical knowledge and skills. It stands to reason that someone attracted to becoming a technician is interested in working with their hands. Training, therefore, should make use of that natural inclination and engage students in hands-on activities throughout the entire learning process.
International Transportation Learning Center
April 2010
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Training
Transit Partnership Training: Metrics of Success
The Transit Partnership Training: Metrics of Success report is an overview of the key findings of the Metrics of Success series, which chronicles measurable outcomes, in particular return on investment, of transit training partnerships in which the International Transportation Learning Center has had a substantial role.
International Transportation Learning Center
February 2010
Training Partnerships That Work: An Emerging National Network
Training Partnerships That Work provides vivid summaries of successful labor-management training partnerships at sites across the country. The cases included here represent a diverse set of transit systems and unique training partnerships. Most importantly, they illustrate how labor and management can work together successfully on issues of training, and provide valuable lessons for other industries facing the problem of retiring baby boomers and inadequate capacity to train replacement workers.
International Transportation Learning Center
February 2010
Electrical Standards Fundamentals
A document of electrical safety standards and fundamentals. The fundamentals include Electrons, Static Electricity, and Magnetic fields. It also covers how power is transmitted to buildings through the power grid and how grounding is built into delivery systems. This resource is intended only to provide an overview of fundamental principles – please see Terms & Conditions.
International Transportation Learning Center
January 2010
TOPICS: Safety and Health , Trainer and Mentor Development , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Fact Sheets | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Transit Partnership Pays: Working Together – Everybody Wins
This report highlights the evidence that the most successful, cost efficient and durable training systems come from industry based labor-management partnerships.
International Transportation Learning Center
September 2009
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Labor-Management Partnerships
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Jointly Sponsored Training Systems In American Industries
This paper examines recent developments in credentialing in jointly sponsored training and qualifications systems across the United States. This paper builds on previous work on building trades joint apprenticeship and training programs, describes their structure and activities, and documents their superior performance.
Written in collaboration with Robert W. Glover, the University of Texas at Austin.
International Transportation Learning Center
February 2009
Working Together: A Systems Approach for Transit Training
Transit faces a critical skills challenge driven by changing technologies, shifting workforce demographics and record-breaking growth in ridership. Working Together: A Systems Approach for Transit Training outlines how constructive training partnerships provide the most effective way for the transit industry to address its skill challenges.
International Transportation Learning Center
January 2009
Building an Apprenticeship and Training System for Maintenance Occupations
This article discusses the joint training and apprenticeship system emerging in maintenance occupations in the American transit industry, as well as related challenges and strategies to overcome them. The article reports on early results, including efforts to develop a consensus national framework for apprenticeship and training in transit maintenance.
Written with Robert W. Glover, the University of Texas at Austin.
International Transportation Learning Center
January 2009
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Career Pathways , Training
Building Capacity for Transit Training: International and Domestic Comparisons
This working paper provides an overview of the findings from research on strong industry-wide workforce development systems in six other countries and in several US industries. It identifies key features that could be adapted for use to create more effective US transit training.
International Transportation Learning Center
December 2008
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Program Evaluation and ROI , Training
Metrics of Success Series
The Metrics of Success series chronicles measurable outcomes, in particular return on investment, of transit training partnerships in which the International Transportation Learning Center has had a substantial role. Each Metrics report focuses on quantitative data from a specific partnership, while Transit Partnership Training: Metrics of Success is an overview of key findings from all Metrics reports to date.
International Transportation Learning Center
May 2008
Transit Partnership Training: Metrics of Success – Expanded Edition
Smart Investment Partnership: New York State's Transit Workforce Training Proves its Worth
Measuring Up: Keystone Training Partnership – Vol. 1
Measuring Up: Keystone Training Partnership – Vol. 2
Keystone – Making a Difference in Pennsylvania Transit
Keystone – Pennsylvania Transit on the High Road
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Developing a Joint System of Training and Apprenticeship in American Transit
This paper reviews training innovations and lessons that may be applicable to the transit industry from practices used in other industries. It draws on a rich body of experience of joint apprenticeship and training programs, as well as employer-sponsored training.
Prepared with Robert W. Glover, the University of Texas at Austin.
International Transportation Learning Center
September 2007
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Policy and Planning , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Tools/Toolkits | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
People Make the Hardware Work: Transit Experts Call for Labor-Management Training Partnerships
This short toolkit outlines five tools for success in labor-management training partnerships:
- Unions as Partners
- A Joint Training Strategy
- Empowering the Workforce
- Cultivating a Learning Organization
- Reaching High Performance
International Transportation Learning Center; Transit Cooperative Research Program
March 2007
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Labor-Management Partnerships , Training
Public Transportation Operating Agencies as Employers of Choice
TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 103 documents principles, techniques, and strategies that are used in workforce recruitment, development, and retention. The report includes a companion document, “Communications Strategy and Implementation Plan, Positioning the Public Transportation Operating Agency as an Employer of Choice” that describes strategies and solutions that offer the greatest potential for positioning public transportation operating agencies as an employer of choice.
Contributors: Watson Wyatt Worldwide and Focus Group Corporation
Transit Cooperative Research Program
January 2004
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
The Workforce Challenge
This report compiles research about the issues facing the transportation workforce, including changing skills, an aging workforce, and low prioritization of training. The report recommends working to expand existing federal and academic resources, create an institutional focus for the issue, and establish human resources management as a strategic function within the transportation community.
Transportation Research Board
January 2003
TOPICS: Hiring and Recruitment , Policy and Planning , Procurement , Retention , Training
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; Committee on Future Surface Transportation Agency Human Resource Needs: Strategies for Recruiting, Training, and Retaining Personnel
Pennsylvania Transit on the High Road
This report is part of a larger case study that chronicles the development of the Keystone Transit Career Ladder Partnership, including the process of job task/work task analysis, skills gap analysis, and data-driven training development.
International Transportation Learning Center
Digital Multimeter Reference Guide
This reference guide explains how to use a digital multimeter, including glossaries, safety precautions, and related resources.
International Transportation Learning Center
TOPICS: Training , Zero Emission Buses
RESOURCE TYPE: Reports/Articles | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Training for Transportation Technicians: Which Delivery Methods Work Best?
This paper explores what is the most effective way to train transportation technicians. It proposes a blended approach combining classroom time with interactive hands-on demonstrations, followed by structured on-the-job training (OJT) and mentoring.
International Transportation Learning Center
TOPICS: Apprenticeship , Career Pathways , Mentorship , Training
RESOURCE TYPE: Case Studies | TRANSIT MODE: All Modes
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Joint Workforce Investment Program
This case study examines the Joint Workforce Investment (JWI), established in 2006, which is a joint labor management partnership between the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 (ATU). It includes discussion of three primary programs brought together under the JWI initiative: the Maintenance Career Ladders Training Project (MCLTP), New Operator/Mentor Pilot Project, and Health and Wellness Project.