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Clearinghouse Puts Transportation Resources at Your Fingertips

The Midwest Transportation Workforce Center (MTWC) recently launched its new, searchable database of transportation workforce resources. With over 1300 entries, the search feature is accessed by clicking on “Clearinghouse” in the top menu of the MTWC website. Here, you will find listings of a variety of resources including pre-apprenticeship programs, internships, educational opportunities, professional development opportunities, scholarships, summer programs, and workforce development initiatives across the nine-state MTWC region, and beyond.

While the website, with its varied content devoted to growing the transportation pipeline, is a first stop for people seeking transportation workforce information, the indexing of resources in this new database will help users find what they are looking for more readily.

The Clearinghouse is a resource for educators looking for transportation curricula or programs, industry or workforce professionals looking for successful practices, or parents who are looking for summer programs for their budding transportation professional. So, if you are looking for Supply Chain programs in the region, or K-12 programs that target girls, we can help.

“Our vision for a Clearinghouse is that it will help us capture and define the collective work we are doing in this region. These transportation resources span the continuum from K-12 career awareness through professional development across all transportation occupations. With this database, we can determine where the gaps are and where we need to improve career pathways.  As our communities prepare for the future of the transportation workforce, this kind of information will form a fundamental baseline for these planning discussions. We will be ready,” said Maria Hart, MTWC Program Manager.

The MTWC website is a one-stop for all things related to the transportation talent pipeline in the Midwest. With MTWC, you can connect with your peers, share best practices, read about others’ successes, and help define and develop the Midwest strategy for transportation talent development.

Please click here to explore the most comprehensive compilation of the region’s transportation workforce development initiatives, programs, and resources.

Make Sure Your Resources Are Listed

The MTWC Clearinghouse is always growing and improving. This launch is only the beginning. Help us build this network. To get your resource listed, please complete the MTWC Clearinghouse submission form. Or, send information along with a website link by email to Maria Hart at maria.hart@wisc.edu.

Getting the Most from the MTWC Clearinghouse

The Midwest Transportation Workforce Center Clearinghouse has over 1,300 resources in its searchable database including internships, educational opportunities, summer programs, and workforce organizations.

Based on the keywords or phrases that you enter, the search engine is designed to locate the widest range of results from the database. These can then be narrowed down by clicking within the navigation menu that is generated on the left-hand side of the window.

Search Tips & Tricks

Using the Faceted Navigation Menu

search_navigation

After you type a search word or phrase into the search field, boxes are displayed on the left side of the screen to help locate more specific results.

After you type a search word or phrase into the search field, a series of boxes on the left side of the screen is displayed. Each box shows a category of results that contain resources related to your search word or words. For each, the number of resources in the results related to that category with the search terms is shown in parentheses after the category label.

For example, if you search for “degree,” several results are generated. On the left side of the screen, boxes are displayed for various categories such as the states in which degrees are available and organizations that offer degrees. Clicking on one of these, such as “Missouri (25)” will then display just those results that are available in the state of Missouri.

Use Multiple Words to Find the Most Results

Searching for multiple words will give you more results. Results will include entries with ANY of the words you type.

Use Longer or Specific Words to Narrow the Results

Short words result in more results than longer words. For example, to find all of the resources related to transportation by rail, type “rail” into the search field. This will return all of the resources related to rail as well as railroads. You might have more results to scroll through than you want. To narrow your results, you can type a space after “rail” or use the full word “railroad.”

Make Sure Your Resources Are Listed

The Clearinghouse is always growing and improving. To get your resource listed, please complete the MTWC Clearinghouse Submission Form or send your resource information by email to maria.hart@wisc.edu.