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How Do We Recruit And Train A New Generation Of Frontline Managers For Transit Maintenance?

Posted October 2016

That’s a challenge being addressed in a series of week-long workshops sponsored by the National Transit Institute and conducted by Barbara Gannon, a recognized leader on transit workforce issues.

On September 29, Center Executive Director Jack Clark and Deputy Director Xinge Wang spoke to participants in a workshop held in Louisville, Kentucky. Their presentation reviewed some of the major themes on the challenges facing transit, such as the need to hire, train and retain 125 percent of the current workforce over the next ten years.

Approximately 45 participants took in the information and engaged in a lively discussion looking at the data and at situations in their own transit properties. The mid-level managers attending were a generally diverse group in terms of agency size and racial composition, but all were male. When Xinge Wang presented data on the very low representation of women in higher-paid technical transit careers, each of the three working groups reported back on the specific need to reach out to women for non-traditional careers. They also engaged in lively and wide-ranging discussions on apprenticeship, career ladders and reaching out to young people about the possibility of transit careers.
This group of leaders came together to address the specific challenge of finding their own successors as frontline managers of maintenance. They came away from this presentation with a very clear sense that their immediate challenge is related to a larger skills and succession challenge for the entire transit workforce.

For more information, contact Deputy Director Xinge Wang or download the presentation.