News

National Transportation Workforce Summit Call for Papers

The Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) and key transportation, education and labor organizations are accepting abstracts from individuals of all disciplines interested in transportation workforce issues. Abstracts are due Nov. 4. 2011. The goals of the National Transportation Workforce Summit, which will be held April 24-26, 2012, in Washington, DC, are:
  • To foster a national dialog on the needs and solutions for and development of the transportation workforce in the United States;
  • To promote greater visibility for transportation careers in industry, government, and academia;
  • To address key workforce challenges: recruit and retain qualified personnel; fill current and future workforce shortages; define competencies for a high-performing workforce now and for the future; identify and close gaps in workforce training and education;
  • To identify administrative and legislative actions required at federal and state levels to institutionalize effective workforce policies and programs; and
  • To establish a National Transportation Strategic Framework and adopt a coordinated plan to identify and manage joint actions by the industry, federal, state and local transportation and education agencies, and transportation professional organizations that will link workforce needs to workforce development policies and programs.
The scope of the summit includes the workforce for all modes of transportation – maritime, roads and bridges, aviation, and transit - and the training sources for that workforce. The format of the summit will include general plenary sessions as well as interactive break-out sessions on specific workforce issues and concerns.  Each break-out session will produce a written report on the issues, findings, conclusions, and recommendations resulting from the discussions. These reports will be used as a basis to prepare a strategic action plan as described above. A workshop session for preparing the strategic action plan will be held during the morning of day 3.  The workshop will be open to all Summit participants. More information about the summit, as well as a downloadable PDF Call for Papers is available online here.