Ensuring the Growth of California's Transportation Workforce:
Developing the Right Workers for Today's Challenges
and Tomorrow's Jobs

This California Regional Transportation Workforce Development Summit was presented by METRANS Transportation Center and the Mineta Transportation Institute in partnership with Long Beach City College.

Held Monday-Tuesday, February 1-2, 2010
Hyatt Regency Long Beach
Long Beach, California

Monday, February 1 9:00 am - 6:30 pm: speakers, panels, and showcases
Tuesday, February 2 8:00 am - 4:30 pm: speakers, panels and showcases

The goals of this two-day California Transportation Workforce Development Summit are as follows:

• Assess the abilities of today's transportation worker and identify the skills necessary for the next generation of California's transportation workforce;
• Bring together professionals from engineering, goods movement, planning, transit, construction, and other fields to identify partners who will address changing workforce needs;
• Showcase programs and partnerships that demonstrate innovation in meeting the State's transportation workforce challenge;
• Organize the resulting data and recommendations to become part of a 2010 National Transportation Workforce Development Summit in Washington DC.

The Challenge, The Opportunity, and The Result

The Challenge

Experts predict that by 2050, California's population will double from what it was in 2000. Those people will need mobility. If the state's transportation infrastructure does not keep pace, it risks a meltdown. California will need a new generation of professionals to address those issues - people in transportation planning, engineering, finance, transit operations, maritime and aviation technology, goods movement, construction, agency management, community relations, and many other areas. This mobility crisis will be complicated by the growing number of Baby Boomers reaching retirement age, leaving employment gaps to be filled by a new wave of properly educated professionals.

But the State cannot wait until 2050 to act. Change is already underway. New legislative priorities at the State level may require transportation engineers to learn to calculate carbon footprints within the next few years. New technologies have changed the skill sets needed of front line transit technicians. Planners need to learn human resource management tools to address the organizational change that is happening now.

The Opportunity

The METRANS Transportation Center and the Mineta Transportation Institute are presenting "Ensuring the Growth of California's Transportation Workforce: Developing the Right Workers for Today's Challenges and Tomorrow's Jobs." This two-day professional summit, in partnership with Long Beach City College, will address those issues. Anyone who hires, trains, educates or wishes to become a transportation professional is encouraged to attend. Expert panels will address career development, skills gaps, training strategies, outreach, best practices, and more. Participants will also meet educational service providers and industry representatives in a Showcase Hall. Showcases will demonstrate effective programs already underway while allowing participants to meet potential partners and talk to people who have gone participated in effective workforce development programs.

The Result

This is one of several regional summits around the country - sponsored by University Transportation Centers - that will culminate in a national summit in Washington, DC in late 2010. Data and recommendations from each regional summit will become part of the national summit and influence the development of the nation's future transportation priorities.