Resource Center

The Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans (PTASP) Technical Assistance Center (TAC) provides comprehensive technical assistance to help the transit industry meet PTASP regulation requirements, as outlined in 49 CFR part 673.

The TAC:

• Provides one-on-one technical assistance
• Facilitates training and peer-sharing via live webinars and roundtables
• Conducts voluntary technical reviews of draft Agency Safety Plans
• Maintains a resource library with technical assistance tools.

Link to Website and Resource Library

Working with pre-apprentices and apprentices requires a combination of case management and coaching. This webinar provides the fundamentals of case management and coaching and teaches a framework for effective service delivery. This session also focuses on the use of assessments for productive service planning, quality program documentation and team communication for successful handoffs.

MODERATOR(S)

• Luis Roig, Contracting Officer’s Representative, Office of Apprenticeship, U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration

PRESENTER(S)

• Amy Landesman, Grantee Coach, ICF
• Valerie Taylor, Grantee Coach, ICF

Link to Webinar Recording and Supplemental Documents

In rural communities, widely dispersed populations face a multitude of access challenges. Faced with a declining talent pool, lower educational attainment, and rising poverty rates caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need to prepare young people in rural areas for high-demand careers.

As part of the Implementing Workforce Programs for Rural Youth series, this webinar, hosted by the Office of Apprenticeship, focused on best practices and creative solutions for increasing pre-apprenticeship and youth apprenticeship access, enrollment, retention, and program completion for young people in rural areas. Featured youth apprenticeship intermediaries and partners shared their accomplishments in developing youth apprenticeship opportunities in rural areas, establishing networks of support, and best utilizing available resources to ensure pre-and youth apprenticeship success.

MODERATOR(S)

• Maisha Meminger, Manpower Analyst , Division of Youth Services, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

PRESENTER(S)

• Vanessa Bennett, Associate Director, Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning, Jobs for the Future
• Zach Boren Senior Policy Program Manager, Urban Institute
• Bhavani Arabandi, Senior Research Associate, Urban Institute
• Jacqueline Rayfield, Policy Analyst, Urban Institute

Link to Webinar Recording and Supplemental Documents

MODERATOR(S)

• Tim Theberge, Division Director, Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance

PRESENTER(S)

• Adam Wagoner, Deputy Director, South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce
• Chris Mills, Program Coordinator, MassHire Department of Career Services

Link to Webinar Recording and Supplemental Documents

The goal of this research is to provide transit industry executives and transportation professionals with awareness of the many tools that are available to help attract more qualified candidates to the transit industry, as well as ways to advance the development
of the transit workforce. This research highlights social media recruiting; online hiring platform improvements; and partnerships with career centers, universities, and recruitment centers to attract new employees to the transit workforce. In addition, increases in pay, benefits, bonuses, providing flexible schedule options, and some other atypical ideas have successfully been used to retain workers in the transit workforce. This research focuses on ways in which all transit stakeholders can invest in all aspects of industry workforce development to ensure qualified employees choose the transit industry and that they are subsequently trained to be the most beneficial assets to the organization and remain there via effective retention strategies.

Link to Full Report

Shifting demographics in the U.S. workforce indicate that businesses are probably going to need to recruit, train, and retain older workers to ensure their companies remain competitive. However, workplace surveys indicate that most firms are currently not prepared to find and welcome workers who are 50 years of age or older.

Fortunately, a broad array of evidence-based hiring and talent development strategies are at the ready for U.S. employers. These strategies draw from a recent and comprehensive review of employer practices and their influence on economic security and mobility for U.S. workers.

Three key connected takeaways for employers to consider as they plan for ways to leverage this segment of the workforce are as follows:

• Engage directly with older employees in developing their digital skills.

• Seek out the social networks in which older workers operate to find the best recruiting matches.

• Lean into current or former employees and their online connections to identify these social networks.

Recruiting and Retaining Older Workers

The importance of security barriers for transit bus operators became even clearer after the fatal attack on a Tampa, Florida, bus operator in 2019. The need for security barriers was reinforced by a serious attack on another operator for that same system later that year. While these are two extreme examples, they are likely not unique, as many assaults against transit workers have been underreported in the past. Another important but more pernicious risk to bus operator health is viral and bacterial infection.

TCRP Research Report 249: Bus Operator Barrier Design: Guidelines and Considerations provides information and guidance for North American public transportation agencies, standards committees, and government and non-government policymaking organizations on designing, procuring, and installing bus operator barriers to prioritize the health and safety of essential operators and the public they serve.

Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; STYL&TECH; International Transportation Learning Center; Transportation Research Board; Transit Cooperative Research Program; Andrew Krum; Scott Tidwell; Joshua Skole; Erin Mabry; Aditi Manke; Tarah Crowder; Christy Campoll

TCRP Research Report 249

Given current workforce shortages, reaching out and engaging older workers is of interest to many employers. The AmeriCorps Seniors research team developed five older adult workforce program tip sheets on topics relevant to interacting with older adults in the workforce. You can view the tip sheets on the project website, which are linked here:

Tipsheet 1 Recruitment Strategies for Older Workers Tipsheet 2 Learning Community Principles Tipsheet 3 Older Adult Workforce Tipsheet 4 Participant Challenges Tipsheet 5 Volunteer Matching