This project will provide training services to WSDOT to address the agency’s immediate and long-term workforce development needs. The transportation industry is facing workforce challenges. Transportation professionals need access to continuing education to keep up with quickly changing knowledge and technologies that enhance the efficiency and reliability of existing transportation infrastructure. In addition, the industry is facing the issue that more than 50 percent of the nation’s state transportation agency workforce will be eligible to retire in the next decade. This means that transportation agencies need to recruit more junior and less experienced employees to address a looming labor shortage. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) recognizes these issues and the importance of workforce development to maintain and improve its organizational strength. The PacTrans Workforce Development Institute is a program that provides demand-responsive and flexible training services to transportation agencies in the Pacific Northwest. Working with WSDOT, it will offer customized training to the agency’s working professionals on three topics of immediate importance: the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), human factors, and data analysis and tools. An additional, long-term objective is to collaborate with WSDOT to develop and deliver additional relevant training courses, webinars, and workshops to help WSDOT address its long-term workforce development needs.
Principle Investigator: Yinhai Wang, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW
Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor: Monica Harwood
WSDOT Project Manager: Doug Brodin
Scheduled completion: July 2021