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Traffic Engineering Lessons Guide Teens through Crash Prevention Concepts

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A standard curriculum for a science class does not include an exploration of Transportation occupations. Engineering topics are covered, but the specific roles of the people who build and maintain our transportation systems are not.

Always looking for ways to provide a broader range of learning experiences to her students, Hope Mikkelson, a science teacher at Verona Area High School in south central Wisconsin, was excited to learn of the suite of free STEM lesson plans from NanoSonic. She immediately began preparations to bring them to the Science Club she mentors.

“These students are always wanting to learn. As teachers, we develop lessons within the curriculum, but that can be very regimented. These students want more,” said Mikkelson.

Team leaders of the club, all of whom were juniors, came together to work through, “Lesson 2: Stopping Distance and Crash Avoidance Laboratory Exercise Grade 9-12,” the second lesson plan in a module on crash prevention in this suite. Students, Gail, Chris, Meg, Molly, and Celia, gave up their lunch period to explore the activities and concepts.

Gail and Meg read through the lesson plan ahead of time and provided some feedback.

“The lesson plans are easy to follow. Each was 90 to 120 minutes long. I would suggest making them 50 minutes long or creating a definite stopping point in the middle,” said Gail.

The lesson plans were developed to be used in an after-school STEM program. For groups like this one, being able to fit the lesson plans into a classroom period would be beneficial.

Mikkelson guided the students through an initial thought exercise. She posed the question, “Why are more and more intersections being built as roundabouts rather than traditional four-way intersections, or crossroads?”

To answer this question, the students broke into two groups. They discussed the questions and drew models of both types of intersections on the white board. Then, the groups discussed the effects of collision on a car, on the human body. After working separately, the two groups came together to discuss their findings.

Crash scenarios that the students expected to see in roundabouts included side swipes and fender benders. Gail pointed out that collisions in roundabouts will likely be between vehicles traveling in the same direction, at similar speeds, so, the impacts will probably have less force.

All of the students have their driver’s licenses. During the discussion, their personal experiences were brought into the discussion. While they may not have referred to them in these terms, students shared their experiences with human factors and driver-assist technologies. Their experiences with a student parking lot filled with inexperienced drivers illustrated some key challenges with traffic flow and congestion. And, Chris has more than one friend who has backed into something while using a backup-assist video camera. Because the camera only showed what’s directly behind the vehicle and not the sides, his friends have gotten into trouble by relying too heavily on what is displayed on the screen.

“These lessons make the ideas behind Traffic Engineering more meaningful for the students,” said Mikkelson.

This suite of Transportation-focused lesson plans created as part of a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation was highlighted by MTWC last year. At the time, NanoSonic had worked with STEM teachers in the Giles County, Virginia school district to pilot and field test the lessons and were starting to get the word out to other educators.

Future Construction Workers Engaged and Prequalified through Games

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A suite of games, videos, and assessment tools is helping build awareness and close the skills gap for the growing number of quality careers in highway construction. In partnership with Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania (CAWP), Ladders of Opportunity, and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Simcoach Games has developed the Future Road Builders game. This game addresses a concerning talent gap seen by employers by allowing people to explore the field and develop skills.

Future Road Builders doesn’t just provide games, it also comes with a dashboard that provides an avenue for connecting companies with potential employees. The dashboard provides organizations with data-based insights into who is using the game. Insights include what region players are in, what interests they have, and what aptitudes they have shown. Additionally, organizations can license the ability to send targeted messages to specific audiences based on players’ zip codes.

According to the Simcoach website, the combination of game design techniques with proven learning principles results in a solution that, “requires less time to deliver, increases retention for learners, and measurably improves a defined outcome.”

A pilot project with the Western Pennsylvania Operating Engineers is demonstrating the power of gamification. The pilot is about three quarters of the way through the 2018 apprenticeship application process, but preliminary numbers are being tabulated.

Chris Seidler, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Simcoach Games points out, “the goals of Future Road Builders were to increase the number of prequalified applicants, female applicants, and minority applicants into Western Pennsylvania apprenticeship opportunities . Initial statistics indicate very promising results in accomplishing those goals.”

The early numbers demonstrate that playing Future Road Builders not only helped draw people into the apprenticeship program, but it also helped better prepare applicants as they moved through the process. While overall, 26% of all applicants had played Future Road Builders, the game did a good job engaging women and minorities to apply. Among the minority applicants who were selected to interview, 40% had played Future Road Builders, and among the women who were selected to interview, 45% had played the game.

Another one of Simcoach’s games has been regionally customized for South Dakota. Build South Dakota: The Game is a virtual pre-apprenticeship experience. In it, the player explores the different phases of a highway construction project and uncovers the skills needed to be a Carpenter, Pile Driver, Concrete Finisher, Skilled Laborer, Heavy Equipment Operator, and Inspector.

For more information, you may also like this interview with Simcoach Games founder, Jessica Trybus, on Venture Beat or visit simcoachgames.com

Reinvigorating Interest in Transportation Occupations for Engineers Week 2018

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This year for Engineers Week, the Midwest Transportation Workforce Center will be thinking about what it takes to build an engineering workforce that will be capable of maintaining the nation’s transportation infrastructure. What skills and knowledge will workers need over the next 5-to-15 years in order to be successful in light of the rapidly advancing technologies and data systems moving into the transportation sector?

Attracting young people to this field begins today and it begins early—in elementary, middle, and high school. Engineers Week is filled with events and activities to engage and inspire people to envision a career filling one of these important roles.

Each state in the MTWC region celebrates engineering in its own way. You can find Engineers Week events as well as other activities designed to inspire and educate young people about their career options in the MTWC Clearinghouse searchable database.

For the Midwest, we’ve compiled a short list of events for each state:

Illinois

The DuPage Area STEM Expo on Saturday, is a specialized event designed to promote the awareness of professional and educational opportunities provided among engineering and STEM fields. The event features over 50 displays, presentations, projects to take home and activities for school-age children, grades K–12.  https://appliedtech.iit.edu/stemexpo

Indiana

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis had engineers from various disciplines stationed near several exhibits throughout the museum during its annual Engineers Day event. Each station will have a hands-on activity and volunteers will be there to talk with visitors, answer any questions about engineering, and hand out materials. http://mtwc.org/event/engineers-day-at-the-childrens-museum-of-indianapolis/

Older students might enjoy the Engineers Week High School Bridge Contest on Saturday held on the campus of the College of Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. http://www.etcs.ipfw.edu/EWeekBridgeContest/

Iowa

Several fun events are scheduled for the college’s students during the Iowa State University Engineers’ Week. The goal is to involve the college in a celebration of engineering that encompasses all students, faculty, staff, and alumni. https://www.engineering.iastate.edu/eweek/

Kansas

For two days, March 2nd and 3rd, the Kansas University School of Engineering will open its doors to Elementary and Middle School students to explore the world of engineering during its Engineering Expo 2018. Students will have unique opportunities to learn more about science and engineering through demonstrations, hands-on activities, and competitions. This year’s competitions include: Marshmallow Tower, Downhill Car, Rube Goldberg, Egg Drop, Skyscraper, Pasta Bridge, Paper Airplane, Catapult, and Water Rocket. https://engr.ku.edu/esc/expo

March 10th will be the 20th anniversary of the Society of Women Engineers Wichita Section’s 2018 Engineering Expo. The event is designed to show students in grades K–8 how cool engineering can be. This free event features hands-on activities as well as smaller, in-depth workshops for kids in grades 6, 7 and 8. Workshops this year include: Apollo 13 CO2 Filter, Build a Fidget Spinner, Hydraulic Claw, Solar Cars, and Squishy Circuits. https://wichitaswe.org/expo/

Michigan

This Friday, the American Center for Mobility’s Exploration Day: The Future of Self-Driving Vehicles will offer opportunities to learn from industry experts on the state of industry and technology of self-driving vehicles (and drones), experience demo vehicles, take a tour of the new American Center for Mobility test site, and talk to company representatives about job opportunities. The morning is open to veterans. Students are invited in the afternoon. https://events.engin.umich.edu/events/49459-11462136/

Minnesota

The MPS STEM & Career Exploration Expo, February 21st, is a keystone event for all Minneapolis Public Schools’ 8th grade students to explore STEM-related career interests and learning opportunities in the community. Community partners will provide hands-on, interactive exhibits designed to increase student interest in STEM-related learning and/or career opportunities related to Minnesota’s career fields that keep our economy strong: Business, Management & Administration, Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources, Arts, Communications & Information Systems, Engineering, Manufacturing & Technology, Health Sciences, and Human Services. http://stem.mpls.k12.mn.us/mpsstemexpo

Get ready to dive into the world of technology and engineering at Tech Fest on Saturday. The biggest event of the year for The Works Museum. With dozens of hands-on activities led by scientists, engineers, and educators, this special family STEM day is a perfect opportunity to explore together. The event brings together all the areas of STEM with activities and demos designed just for families. With building, making, chemistry, the physics of launching rockets, exploring technology used to save lives and keep us healthy, and more, Tech Fest is a perfect family outing for a wintry day. https://theworks.org/tech-fest/

Missouri

At Coding is as easy as Raspberry Pi on February 27th, kids will explore the world of coding using these credit card-sized computers and learn the basics of computer languages such as SCRATCH. http://www.mymcpl.org/events/calendar/event/26877

Ohio

Each year, the Case Engineering Council (CEC) coordinates Case Western Reserve University’s Engineers Week with several events scheduled for Case students. They are able to participate in friendly competition, social events, seminars with excellent speakers, and a reception. https://engineering.case.edu/delpp/eweek

Wisconsin

The one-day STEM Exploration Day for Girls on the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus will be February 23rd. This event caters to 7th and 8th grade girls to get them fired up and excited about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The event showcases STEM career professionals from throughout Wisconsin and faculty from the UW system. Students will engage in hands-on workshops and learn the many career paths available with an education in STEM. A $40 registration fee includes exhibit exploration, a keynote presentation, three one-hour workshops, event materials, a t-shirt and a lunch. Students have 27 workshops to choose from. https://www.uwsp.edu/conted/ConfWrkShp/Pages/STEM/Girls.aspx

Public-Private Partnership Helps Technical College Launch New Transportation Center with $3 Million Challenge Grant

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A curious person, who uses their sleuthing skills to get to the bottom of a problem with the aid of computerized diagnostic equipment, may not be what most people picture when they think about automotive technicians or diesel mechanics. Yet, today, successful candidates in these occupations are just that; they are inquisitive problem solvers. They need these skills to work in a field that has become increasingly technical and computerized.

There is a shortage of workers with these skills nationally, and in Wisconsin, employers are having trouble finding the talent they need to fill positions. In the state’s largest city, Milwaukee, a public-private partnership, called the MATC RevUp program, has been launched to help recruit more people into the field and provide needed training.

Tom Hurvis, issued the funding challenge to help fill the need for more technicians and provide opportunities for students to obtain the skills needed for a family-supporting career in the automotive field.

Tom Hurvis, Co-founder of Old World Industries, issued a $3 million challenge grant in March 2017 to expand automotive programs at the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) and kick off fund raising to create the Al Hurvis-Peak Transportation Center. Grant funding will provide seed money to launch expanded academic programming and outreach activities, including the additional personnel and equipment expenses for the new transportation center.

The grant provides $1 million in immediate funding, and up to an additional $2 million for every dollar MATC raises for the RevUp program over two years. To house the transportation center, MATC is repurposing an existing auditorium at its downtown campus. The building will be named the Al Hurvis PEAK Transportation Center to honor Tom Hurvis’ father, Al Hurvis, who was an automotive executive in the Milwaukee area.

The RevUp project is taking aim at the causes behind the talent gap in the state.

“The biggest issues are two-fold. First, there is a shortage. The recession caused people to hold off retiring. But now, with the economy rebounding, combined with all the changes in technology, a lot of those baby boomers are leaving. We’re going to have serious technician gaps in the workforce,” said Steve Herro, Project Manager of the Al Hurvis-Peak Transportation Center at MATC. “Secondly, there is a negative stereotype around auto mechanics. It is seen as a non-technical career with no growth potential. This is why we use the term technicians, to better reflect the current reality of this occupation.”

In addition to technology evolving, the way that young people find their way to careers like automotive technician or diesel mechanic has also changed.

“In the past, young people probably had some sort of mentor—like a family member—who was working on a car and they got a chance to help. In our urban areas, today, youth coming up have not had the same sorts of opportunities,” said Herro.

The RevUp program is focused on opportunities for students in urban settings. The two-pronged approach is providing additional support and engagement activities for existing students and outreach into the community to get more young people interested in transportation careers.

The RevUp program is focused on opportunities for students in urban settings. The two-pronged approach is providing additional support and engagement activities for existing students and outreach into the community to get more young people interested in transportation careers.

MATC RevUp will be partnering with area groups, like the Boys and Girls Club, which have expertise in putting on camps, to host automotive-related camps starting this summer. These camps will be at the middle school and high school level and introduce students to careers in the automotive industry. Representatives from area businesses will offer their time as mentors. One of the planned activities for high schoolers is to build raceable go carts. This project will provide experience with engines, fabrication, and auto-body painting.

Herro points out that the skills learned by automotive technicians provide advancement opportunities over time along a career pathway. These skills are also highly transferable according to Herro, and technicians may not spend their whole careers in the automotive field.

“One of our instructors told me that he had a student from the diesel program who went on to work on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico making $100 grand after three years. Diesel is a huge area because you can work on any diesel engine. It doesn’t matter if it’s at a power company, in a truck, or in a manufacturing setting,” said Herro.

The RevUp program will also be running after-school clubs during the school year. While Wisconsin has many high-quality automotive programs that meet national standards, many schools in the state have discontinued their automotive programs due to costs.

“Often, an automotive program might have $500 to $1000 per year to purchase supplies. That doesn’t even provide annual updates for their automotive diagnostic equipment,” said Herro. “We need to do more than just support those schools. We need to dive deeper into the community and get more students interested in these programs,” he said.

Milwaukee area native, Tom Hurvis, chairman of Old World Industries, LLC, the parent company of the PEAK automotive brand, issued this funding challenge to help fill the need for more technicians and provide opportunities for students in urban Milwaukee to obtain the skills needed for a family-supporting career in the automotive field.

Interested donors can contact Laura Bray, Executive Director of the MATC Foundation and MATC Vice President of College Advancement and External Communications, at braylm@matc.edu.

Logistics Engineering Technology Pre-College Experience

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In its second year, the experiential summer program is part of a project to build an academic pathway for Logistics Engineering Technicians funded by a National Science Foundation grant under the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program. The project addresses skills and knowledge gaps found in emerging occupations in the logistics field where automation and sophisticated computerized systems are becoming more prevalent.

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Suite of Transportation Lesson Plans Bring Leading Edge Technologies to Middle and High School Students and Educators

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Technologies around transportation are evolving rapidly. Staying current is difficult enough for professionals in the field, let alone for young people or the educators who prepare them for post secondary education and to choose their career path. Through a unique project, a suite of lesson plans teaching concepts from intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and connected vehicle technologies has been developed for middle school and high school students. The plans connect educators with the latest technologies and expose students to a modern vision of careers in the transportation industry.

“What kids see in terms of highway workers is a bunch of guys with trucks and shovels. But, we’re doing coding and robotics and communications. There’s a difference between the current perception and the vision of what’s going to come in the future as things are automated and as technology improves, and as the ways that transportation systems are developed, designed or maintained change,” said Richard Claus, Chief Executive Officer of NanoSonic, a company specializing in advanced materials and devices headquartered in Pembroke, Virginia.

NanoSonic is one of very few high-tech companies in a very rural area. Located near a local middle school, the people of NanoSonic were routinely asked to visit science, math or chemistry classes. Four years ago, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sponsored a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop lesson plans around intelligent transportation systems and connected vehicle technologies. The company’s leadership saw this as an opportunity to get more formally engaged with the education system.

They were awarded the contract and began collaborating with engineers from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s ITS Joint Program Office’s Professional Capacity Building (ITS PCB) Program and Leidos and with educators from local schools. Since the initial project, the company was also awarded another contract for a second phase lasting two years, which is coming to a close, now.

“The contract required us to develop twenty lesson plans. We’re up to about sixty-five, now,” said Claus.

A recently developed lesson plan involves students in the development of clothing that will keep highway maintenance workers safe by sensing when traffic is too close.

From the initial set of lesson plans, the ideas have continued to evolve and grow. One of the plans most recently developed has students utilize e-textile fabrics with embedded sensors and actuators. In this exercise, students develop clothing that will keep highway maintenance workers safe by sensing when traffic is too close. In addition to getting the students to think about how close a vehicle can be to a person without putting them in danger, the activity provides experience assembling electronics, learning about how the sensors work, and programming the devices.

Lesson plans were field tested through a STEM afterschool program serving middle school and high school students. Now in its third year, the program has reached many students, some of whom have returned year after year.

“One of our best success stories comes from one of the students who was with us for a couple of years, graduated from high school, and then, between graduating and going to college in the fall, worked for the Virginia Department of Transportation as a transportation engineer,” said Claus. The graduate returned recently and talked to the kids in the afterschool program about his experiences. “After he talked, enthusiasm among the students went up by a factor of ten. It just has more impact for a student to tell other students, than for an adult to tell them.”

Sensors in the fabric to be used for highway worker clothing.

Transportation is a good field for engaging with students of this age group, according to Christina Martin, who serves as the Giles County STEM Education Program Coordinator. “Students are excited about driving; it’s something they can see themselves doing in a few years. It’s fun for them to think about how vehicles are going to change. They see some of the connected applications that already exist on vehicles and they can start to imagine what that progression is going to look like in several years,” she said.

It was through their interactions with local teachers that the NanoSonic engineers learned that most of the classrooms in the area did not have access to the Internet. “That floored us because we’re engineers and nerds,” said Claus. NanoSonic purchased inexpensive routers and installed them in the science classrooms in all the county schools they worked with. Today, perhaps in part because of this effort, all of the county schools now have wireless Internet throughout. “We think that’s a nice benefit. Certainly, that wasn’t FHWA’s objective, but as a side benefit, we think we’ve been able to move the county ahead a step or two.”

The company has also helped create a regional science fair, launched a Transportation Engineering Summer Camp, and initiated a summer work program for high schoolers.

“We think it’s our civic responsibility to be part of the community,” said Claus. However, he does point out that the company has had one direct benefit from the work they have done with the schools. Through a summer work program for high school students, NanoSonic has hired one person as a full-time, permanent employee.

To view and download the suite of free transportation lesson plans, visit the Education page of the NanoSonic website.  Questions related to the plans can be directed to STEM@nanosonic.com .

Personal Experiences and a Strong Business Case Have Resulted in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program to Grow Much Needed Workforce

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Facing many of the same workforce challenges being seen in the transportation industry, one large healthcare organization has built a successful model for growing its talent pool. Based on the fundamentals of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the program at UW Health, in southcentral Wisconsin, is growing the skilled workforce they need through an innovative use of community partnerships and home-grown internship and training programs.

Bridgett Willey, Director of Allied Health Education and Career Pathways at UW Health recently joined Tremaine Maebry and 31 attendees for the second installment of the MTWC Diversity and Inclusion Virtual Roundtable Summer Series. In the roundtable, they discussed successful strategies for building a successful Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program and how Willey’s experiences in healthcare can be applied within the Transportation industry. A recording of this roundtable discussion is available on the MTWC website.

Across several sectors, filling positions in the Midwest is difficult and getting harder. That is exactly what UW Health is experiencing as a healthcare system comprised of five hospitals and just under 200 clinics with 16,000 employees. Filling positions in the state is difficult due to high rates of retirement among baby boomers combined with a very low unemployment rate of just 2.6%. UW Health discovered, however, that there is a rich untapped resource among the area’s communities of color, where unemployment rates are currently higher.

About four years ago, Willey started a program to give underrepresented high school and college students an opportunity to explore about 60 in-demand, healthcare careers. The program is called HOPE, which stands for Health Occupations and Professions Exploration. From the first class, interest and attendance in HOPE offerings far exceeded expectations. To date, about 1500 high school and college students from all over the state have participated.

Based on the success of that program, Willey made a proposal to senior leadership to form a new department. Leadership agreed and Allied Health Education and Career Pathways was formed a year and a half ago. With the formation of a department, the programs received a sustainable source of funding that replaced the less reliable grant funds used at their launch.

Since then, the department’s programs have expanded into working not only with youth but also with adults who are underemployed or unemployed. The programs provide short-term training and educational sessions, usually in partnership with a community organization such as The Urban League of Greater Madison, Centro Hispano of Dane County, or Operation Fresh Start, to provide people with the training they need to be successful as they come into various entry-level positions at the hospitals and clinics.

Making the business case for cultural competence at UW Health was key to gaining buy-in for the new department. It’s important for the organization to have a staff with a similar demographic makeup to the patient populations that it serves.

“Over the last couple of years, we have increased our diversity especially at our entry-level careers at the hospital. Now we’re focusing our efforts on creating more opportunities and paths for folks to get into the professional and technical levels of the organization,” said Willey.

Other key factors that have helped gain buy-in include the involvement of subject matter experts from throughout the organization in all aspects of the department’s work. From collecting information about careers and developing training materials to working directly with the students at HOPE events, people are asked to share their knowledge and expertise for the benefit of the program. It’s also important to bring in someone well versed in education who can help not only develop the materials but also help make the careers look interesting to young people. They have a website at www.hopemadisonwi.org that is used extensively by the students during the HOPE events.

With just four career pathways coordinators plus herself, Willey points out that it’s extremely important to be able to work with limited resources and be willing to constantly innovate and change what the team is doing.

“As a small team, we’re always working at capacity. Before we can try something new we have to take something out. So, we’re always in a state of change and growth,” she said.

Willey also admits that her personal experiences probably helped make her especially adept at implementing workforce development programs. When she was about 11, Willey saw her father’s career change take her family from living at the poverty line to the middle class. This experience stuck with her and taught her important lessons about how young people choose their future careers. She later built on this experience when choosing her own professional trajectory, and eventually used all of these experiences to build the HOPE program.

Her early exposure to healthcare came from her dad when he came out of the Navy. After serving four years as an EMT, when he rejoined civilian life, her father’s skills were not transferrable into a certification or a specific job role. So, he was working at a low wage at the VA hospital in Kansas City, as a Patient Care Assistant. While there, a cardiologist offered him the opportunity to learn on the job to operate a new technology, diagnostic medical ultrasound, which was used to look at patients’ hearts and blood vessels. With this new training and new career path, Willey’s father vastly improved his family’s financial situation.

“That, to me was incredible,” said Willey. “Later, when I went to college I started out as a Journalism major. I quickly realized that I was going to have student loans and that there was only a thirty percent chance I would even get accepted into the Journalism school. I decided that I better find a better career.” Willey went on to pursue a career in healthcare, starting with on-the-job EKG Technician training.

“Careers tend to run in families,” Willey points out. “When I tell the story of my dad to the kids in HOPE, it tends to make a big impact. Many of them have experienced poverty or experienced a parent working two or three jobs just trying to make ends meet,” said Willey. “Whereas, a lot of careers in healthcare, with very little formal education, can be extremely lucrative and support families.”

A recent article in the Wisconsin State Journal highlighted the student experience through the summer HOPE internship program.

For more information about the MTWC D&I Virtual Roundtable or if you have any questions please contact Maria Hart at maria.hart@wisc.edu.

Exponential Growth in Registered Apprenticeship in Transportation Fueled by Accelerator Activity and Industry Commitment

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Registered apprenticeship programs are growing to meet the demands of the transportation sector. A powerful tool for companies to develop the talent they need to fill positions, apprenticeship is being adopted to address workforce gaps in a growing array of occupations. The U.S. Department of Labor funds intermediaries such as FASTPORT and TransPORTs to develop registered apprenticeship programs and expand the number of apprentices for employers in the transportation and logistics industry.

“I am currently working with a large supply chain exporter with 60 branches in the U.S. Their vice president reached out to us because he wants to use apprenticeship to build his workforce,” said Barbara Murray, TransPORTs Apprenticeship and Partnership Development Expert. “He said there are great supply chain programs out there and named a couple of universities. But, then he said the graduates of those programs have great theoretical knowledge but they don’t have any work experience so they really still can’t go to work.” Plus, Murray pointed out, it is at this point that new graduates often discover that the job is not a good fit.

Combine the career readiness that apprenticeship provides with the astoundingly high retention rates of 87-93% of employees who complete apprenticeship programs, and it is clear why more companies are turning to groups like TransPORTs and FASTPORTS, for assistance in getting new programs up and running for an increasing number of occupations.

Resources such as videos and the new SMART Maritime and Transportation Career Pathways and Occupations Toolkit are available to help spread the word about the growing number of maritime occupations available through registered apprenticeship.

“My role has been changing the face of what apprenticeship is. Those professional careers can all be done with apprenticeship. The only way to do that is have people understand what apprenticeship is,” said Murray. “There are so many open positions right now where the people applying don’t have the needed skills. There’s a mismatch. More can be done than just taking classes and sitting in a classroom. Actually taking relevant classes that are matched to the work that you’re doing; that’s the difference.”

Truck drivers are an in-demand group and accordingly, this was one of the earliest national training standards program developed.
“We now have nine national employer companies sponsoring registered apprenticeship programs. Through these there are currently 814 apprentices operating on the national standards with a truck driving apprenticeship,” said Dave Harrison, Executive Director of National Apprenticeship at FASTPORT.

One of the key boosts to apprenticeship has been the advent of national apprenticeship standards, which facilitate the expansion of programs across states and make it easier to replicate programs.

“In 2014 an idea was born and some of us in the industry started actually writing what is called the National Standard of Apprenticeship, even before anything was passed in legislation. We just believed it was going to happen,” said Harrison. “It’s just been since the middle of 2015 that we started getting engagement on national strategies. So, if you look at it, it’s not very old.”

Truck drivers and diesel mechanics are some of the most in-demand employees being developed through apprenticeship today.

But there has been a lot of growth in a short time. Since the beginning, Harrison points out the truck driver segment has experienced the greatest growth, because that’s the biggest area of need. Moving forward, other related occupations are beginning to catch up. These include occupations like diesel mechanic and fleet manager. FASTPORT currently has programs for eight occupations in this area.

Over the next two years, Harrison predicts explosive growth in apprentices joining programs for freight broker or cargo broker and related occupations. These occupations are increasingly important to the world economy “because they integrate everything, air, land, and sea,” said Harrison.

In maritime, employers around our nation’s ports have diverse workforce needs and the new occupations being pursued for apprenticeship reflect this diversity. “The hot jobs include electro-mechanical, welder, HVAC, crane operator, logistics associate, freight forwarder, and, most recently, graphic designer,” said Murray.

Currently in process, FASTPORT is working to co-sponsor a new registered apprenticeship program with the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) to launch programs for freight brokers. With over 1700 employers as part of their association, this TIA program will quickly rival truck driver programs in terms of enrolled apprentices.

Harrison sites partnerships with industry as the driving factor for apprenticeship program successes. It is the industry connections which helps guide the best practices for reaching employers. One of the key activities they do is host accelerator events, often as part of national trade conferences. FASTPORT will be attending the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas, August 24-26. “This is a great event and I would encourage anyone interested in apprenticeship and the transportation industry to attend,” said Harrison.

“A lot of what we do is make it simpler and quicker for companies,” said Murray. She cites the U.S. Department of Labor’s commitment to the ApprenticeshipUSA program with contributing to their success by adding more people but not more administrative layers. “We have more people, more opportunities to work face-to-face with companies and turn their programs around more quickly,” she said.

To learn more about starting an apprenticeship program, contact Dave Harrison at dave.harrison@fastport.com or Barbara Murray at brmurray77@gmail.com.

Taking Hands-On Experiences on the Road Reaches More than Students

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Employees with specific skills and a technical education are in demand in the transportation industry and this need is growing. Unfortunately, too few young people are being ushered toward transportation careers. Over the past decade, the nation’s K-12 educational systems have worked hard to deliver students to four-year degree programs at universities. This focus has greatly reduced the number of shop and hands-on technical classes, resulting in dwindling opportunities to expose students to the sorts of careers that drive the transportation industry today.

The Minnesota State Transportation Center of Excellence is determined to reverse this trend by providing young people with in-person, hands-on experiences, while demonstrating the value to parents, school administrators, industry representatives, and others. They are doing this with a new mobile outreach unit, a trailer decked out with stations for each transportation mode that is pulled by a truck. The trailer is outfitted with several pieces of equipment, creating hands-on stations where students, counselors, teachers, peers, and parents can participate in real activities that occur in transportation careers. These activities showcase the technology in the industry and help students develop passion for transportation careers.

“It’s one thing to put out a webinar, put out a newsletter, or tell someone about these careers,” said Chris Hadfield, Director of the Minnesota State Transportation Center of Excellence. But, he pointed out, it’s completely different when students and their parents visit the trailer and have that hands-on experience.

The mobile unit was used for the first time in early May at an event where high school students were competing to build fuel efficient miniature cars with lawn mower engines. The event hosted about 700 attendees and approximately 200-300 people walked through the trailer.

The Minnesota State Transportation Center of Excellence’s new mobile outreach unit is equipped with hands-on experiences representing each mode of transportation.

Inside, the center has designed an experience that promotes engagement with not just the students. School decision makers and parents, which the center refers to as influencers, are also targeted by the trailer.

“You have to have something to draw them in, the big trailer does that. Then you have to have industry partnerships,” said Hadfield. The goal is to have industry representatives from each transportation sector accompany the trailer at events. These industry volunteers work alongside center staff to greet people and talk about transportation jobs.

“We know that when we put an industry person in front of a school superintendent while they’re seeing students get engaged with the experience, that’s when we start to have real conversations about bringing their tech programs back, bringing their transportation programs back, maybe doing some cool internship or apprenticeship with us,” said Hadfield.

Involving industry representatives in outreach activities also serves to bring the transportation sectors together.

“Our idea is to have somebody from the trucking industry sitting side by side, two feet away from, somebody from the aviation sector and they’re side by side with somebody from the railroad and so on and so forth. We have these people mingling and they hadn’t realized before that they have something in common and now they realize that they do. And, common denominators mean that you should be collaborating and working together. There’s a lot more power in working together than alone in silos,” sad Hadfield.

Moving forward, the trailer will be made available to each of the center’s 26 partner post-secondary schools across the state. To utilize the trailer, the schools’ responsibilities include coordinating industry representatives to accompany the trailer, getting the high schools in their region on board, and arranging either a career fair on their own campus or to bring the trailer to a high school. The trailer is made available to center partners at no cost except to return the truck with a full tank of gas.
Brand new, the trailer is already booked for over 36 events over the course of the year. The success of the project so far is attributed to the collaboration of the schools, employers, and the center. Having representatives from the industry is really important toward the outreach goals of the center.

“If a post-secondary educator tells a secondary educator or a student about these careers, that’s nice and it works fine. But, when an industry person tells you, ‘By the way I’m hiring and right now I have people who work for me and this is what I pay them and this is what they do,’ the message has much more weight for a student, a parent or for a school superintendent,” said Hadfield.

About the Minnesota State Transportation Center of Excellence

The Minnesota State Transportation Center of Excellence is an innovative collaboration between Minnesota state colleges and universities and industry partners dedicated to educating and training workers for high-demand careers in the transportation industry.

The center was started in January of 2013 in response feedback from industry “listening sessions” held in 2012. Through the development of partnerships, the center supports workforce alignment in order to meet the current and future needs of the state’s transportation industry, not only in terms of the number of graduates but also in terms of the location of programs and the rate of degree attainment. The center coordinates the alignment of skills and knowledge needed by employers with what is taught in instructional programs while providing outreach to improve student awareness of employment markets.

Designed for Generation Z, Online Pre-Apprenticeship Offers Wisconsin Students a Fast Track to High-Demand Careers

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In recognition of the importance of workforce issues to Wisconsin’s contractors, Wisconsin Operating Engineers partnered with Destinations Career Academy to develop the Operating Engineers Pre-Apprenticeship Program. This program prepares students for registered apprenticeship while still in high school. Hosted through the McFarland School district in south-central Wisconsin, this program is available through course options to students throughout the state.

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