Midwest Transportation Workforce Summit

Addressing the Future Now!
December 7-8, 2015
Fluno Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wisconsin

The Midwest Transportation Workforce Center (MTWC) held the Midwest Transportation Workforce Summit: Addressing the Future Now! on December 7-8, 2015 in Madison, Wisconsin.

The MTWC convened public- and private-sector stakeholders in transportation, education, economic development, and other areas to work to improve transportation workforce development in the Midwest and across the United States.

There were one and a half days packed with expert panels, roundtable discussions, and focused presentations that informed and inspired new workforce development initiatives and innovative partnerships. There were ample opportunities for networking and collaboration with MTWC staff and other attendees.

Summit Materials

Agenda. The Summit Program includes the Summit agenda, presentation abstracts, speaker biographies, and some introductory material.

Showcases. The descriptions of the workforce development initiatives that were on display during the Summit reception are now available.

Workforce Initiatives. At the MTWC Strategic Advisory Meeting in April 2015, attendees identified a number of possible initiatives for improving transportation workforce development in the Midwest.

• Best Practices in Building a Pipeline into the Industry
• Flexible CDL Training
• Job Vacancy Survey
• Outreach for Inclusion
• Summer Job League
• Technical Transportation Clearinghouse
• Transportation Career App
• Transportation Day

Reading Materials. We’ve identified a number of short pieces of reading material that informed the process and discussions at the Summit.

• Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work. This approach underpins our approach to the Summit. The MTWC serves as the backbone organization convening stakeholders who share a common message, common measures, and mutually reinforcing activities.
• Using Emergence to take Social Innovations to Scale. A primer on the power of network and communities of practice.
• Community: The Structure of Belonging by Peter Block. All Summit attendees received a copy of this book in their conference packet.

Presentations. The presentations from the Summit plenary and breakout sessions are posted here, when available. For more information about each of these sessions, consult the Summit Program.

• Introduction to the Summit (Adams)
• Managing the Talent Pipeline: A Supply Chain Approach  (Tyszko)
• The Sector Strategy Approach in the Age of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) (Baker, Whately, and Jones)
• Breakout A-1: Partnering with Schools
  • On-Ramps for Success (Choosing the Right Entry Point to Connect with the Future Workforce) (Wilson and Sanders)
  • Fostering Future Transportation Leaders by Cultivating Partnerships that Last—Networking to “Netweaving” (Bastian and Jackson)
  • Engaging K-12 Students & Teachers in Learning About Transportation (Chadde)
• Breakout A-2: Women in Trades
  • Women in Operational Roles: The Transportation Industry’s Untapped Labor Force (Rust)
  • Building a Transportation Workforce: What Works for Women (Sugerman)
• Breakout A-3: The CDL, a Pathway to Success (Jones, Fowler, and Jozaitis)
• Breakout B-1: Workforce Inclusion and Diversity Partnerships
  • Diversifying the Workforce with Ready, Willing, and Able Workers (Anthony)
  • Recruiting a Diverse Workforce: The Role of Partnerships (Sadler)
  • Ticket to the Middle Class: Overcoming Barriers including Former Incarceration (Jozaitis)
• Breakout B-2: Growing our Own: Advancing Competencies and Skills
  • Workers in the Immigrant Population: The Best Kept Secret (Alvarez)
  • Jobs of the Future for Great Lakes Shipping: A New International Workforce Development Paradigm (Schlicht)
  • Growing the Next-Generation CDL Operators with Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for Competitive Employability(Litzau)
• Breakout B-3: Career Messaging: Getting the Word Out
  • Trucking Moves America Forward–An Image Movement  (Minor)
  • How to Reach the Right students, At the Right time, with the Right Information for Career Engagement: 10 Years of Lessons Learned (Lefler)
  • Connecting Educators, Students, and Industry: The Impact of a Transportation Newspaper in the 21st Century (Feight)
• Setting up a Midwest Transportation Community of Practice (Adams, Martin, and Wagner)
• Supply Chain Career Pathway (Simmons)
• The Future is Now: Reinventing How We Hire (Ozinga)
• Breakout C-1: Strategic Implementation of Diversity and Inclusion Programming at State Departments of Transportation Workshop (Acox, Sadler, and Reed)
• Breakout C-2: Career Planning
  • CareerLocker: A Map to Career Destinations (Hau)
  • Can You Make the Cut? A Look at TD&L Pre-employment Exams (Gordon and Kauffman)
  • Laying The Talent Track: Creating Careers in the Rail Industry (Quero)
• Breakout C-3: Recruitment, Preparation, Retention of Skilled Workers for the Transportation Industry through Wisconsin Apprenticeship (Morgan, Pratt, Weiseling, and Sperburg)

Summit Sponsors

The MTWC thanks these sponsors for supporting the Summit. Click any logo to visit the sponsor’s website.

Supporting

Sustaining

Summit Partners