Inspiring the next generation mobility workforce through innovative industry-academia partnerships

The transportation industry is at the cusp of an entirely new landscape brought about by advanced technologies. These technologies are fundamentally changing the way the industry operates, shifting the required skills and abilities for existing occupations, and creating new jobs with work functions and requirements that did not previously exist. Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competencies will dominate requirements for the future workforce, whether in traditional STEM occupations or not. These changes create exciting opportunities for the new mobility workforce, but also require new approaches to how we attract, educate, and retain workers to combat serious pipeline challenges. Effective strategies must be coherent and collaborative to create comprehensive solutions across the workforce continuum (K-12 to career). And, attracting diversity must be considered from the outset rather than as an afterthought. Industry-academia partnerships are at the core of transformative approaches that will move the needle for inspiring the next generation workforce