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Join Center Program Director John Schiavone for Presentation on Bus Apprenticeship

Posted August 2016

Program Director John Schiavone will discuss the challenges faced nationally by agencies urgently seeking to find qualified replacements for senior technicians who are retiring at alarming rates. While larger agencies tend to have the capacity and resources to train the next-generation of bus technicians, smaller agencies struggle to provide the needed instruction at a time when many are already understaffed. At the Center, John is working on a Department of Labor project to expand bus apprenticeship programs by developing a standardized, competency-based framework that makes use of senior technicians as mentors.

A competency based apprenticeship identifies essential job tasks that journey level technicians need to master in each major bus area. The tasks also become an essential element of providing structured on-the-job learning, where mentors can play a key role when properly coordinated with classroom instruction. John will be presenting on this project at this year’s New York Public Transit Association’s Transit Technology, & Smarter Communities Conference. His presentation “Workforce Development: Bus Apprenticeship Program” is part of the Operations and Maintenance Track on Tuesday of the Conference. For more information, visit the conference website.