Creating a sustainable transportation workforce: Identifying skills, abilities and knowledge for future transportation workforce

The recruitment and retention of a transportation workforce capable of adapting to the requirements of emerging sustainable technologies is an important concern for engineering managers in transportation. Although there is an increasing demand for transportation professionals to fill positions stemming from retirement or created by innovations in sustainable transportation systems, the supply is decreasing. The objective of this research was to fill the gap between the supply and demand of skilled workforce by presenting a life-cycle framework for recruiting and retaining the transportation workforce as part of succession planning efforts funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation\u27s Transportation Education Development Pilot Program (TEDPP). The framework identifies the knowledge, skills, and abilities vital for the future transportation workforce and addresses recruitment, retention, and training strategies as succession planning tools. This research used across-sectional questionnaire to capture the trends and opinions of current transportation professionals on succession planning efforts across the United States. The challenge lay in framing the right kind of questions in order to acquire data that will accurately help accomplish the objectives and in creating a sustainable framework that considers changes in demographics and technologies. The framework lays a foundation for developing a national workforce development strategy in the transportation industry. The results can be used by engineering managers to create a strategic workforce plan based on organizational sustainability and geared toward the management of innovative transportation solutions --abstract, page iii