John Maxwell Leadership Training Being Conducted

Several of the John Maxwell leadership courses are now being offered by SURTC. Dr. John Maxwell is a highly acclaimed leadership speaker and author, having written nearly 80 books, and Dr. Jill Hough, SURTC director, is now a certified John Maxwell speaker, trainer, and coach. Dr. Hough is offering seven of his leadership courses, including "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership," "15 Invaluable Laws of Growth," and others. More information about these courses and other training opportunities currently being offered by SURTC are available on the SURTC website.

March 19 Webinar: Developing Mentorship Programs

Dr. Jill Hough, SURTC director, will be participating in a March 19 webinar hosted by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) on Developing Mentorship Programs: Successful Models and Pilots. See the details below.

Webinar Date: Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Broadcast Time: 2-3:30 p.m. Eastern; 1-2:30 p.m. Central; noon-1:30 p.m. Mountain; 11-12:30 pm. Pacific

Webinar Summary: This webinar features success stories about mentorship programs conducted by the academic community in partnership with the public and private sector and an internal mentor program developed by a public transit agency. Dr. Jill Hough provides insights and lessons learned as North Dakota State University students were mentored by nationally recognized industry leaders. Mr. Patrick “Paddy” Gough, Orange County Transit Authority (OCTA), discusses the successes and lessons learned from OCTA’s internal mentor/mentee program developed and rolled out for their staff. This webinar examines how to organize a working program as well as some best practices with testimonials from experienced industry professionals. We welcome Mr. Robert Prince, AECOM, and Ms. Linda Bohlinger, Parsons Brinckerhoff, who will be featured in this webinar.

Registration: Click here to register

Participation at Louisiana Public Transit Conference

Keven Anderson, coordinator of training and outreach, and researcher Jeremy Mattson are participating in the 2013 Louisiana Public Transit Conference in New Orleans, LA, Nov. 20-22.

Anderson is conducting a session on succession planning and mentoring. Many of the transit managers currently in the industry are at or near retirement age, and most systems have no plans for future managers. In his presentation, Anderson will discuss how to run your transit system as a business and how to grow your current employees through mentor programs to take on more responsibility and continue to grow.

Mattson is giving a presentation on the use of alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles by small urban and rural transit systems. His presentation will be based on a previous study he conducted which involved a survey of small urban and rural transit operators. This research examined the use of alternative fuels and hybrids by these agencies, satisfaction with these alternatives, problems encountered, reasons for adoption, and deterrents, both perceived and real. Click here to access the report.

Transit Curriculum Efforts Highlighted

SURTC director Jill Hough was recently featured in Progressive Railroading. She discussed her work as chair of the National Transit Curriculum Advisory Committee, a group that has been developing a standard curriculum for a semester-long college course on public transportation that could be offered by universities nationwide. Read the article here: Curriculum aims to get college students thinking about careers in public transportation

TCRP Report Provides Guidance for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers

A recently published Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) report provides guidance for transit systems that are having difficulties filling management positions and have limited human resource management resources.

TCRP Report 139: Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems provides resources to assist transit systems in the recruitment, development, and retention of managers.  This Guidebook is designed primarily to address the needs of rural and small urban transit systems, with information for fixed-route, demand response, and ADA paratransit systems.

College Students Not Sure What to Expect from Careers in Transit

Students surveyed as part of a study on public transportation workforce development generally didn't express strong attitudes toward internships or careers in the industry.  For the few internship and career characteristics that students did have opinions the perceptions were negative.  These characteristics included the belief that work in transit is uninteresting, unchallenging, and does not provide the opportunity to be creative.  Project investigators David Ripplinger and Jill Hough of the Small Urban and Rural Transit Center believe that these perceptions may be due to students having little knowledge of the career opportunities in transit.

Students were surveyed to identify attitudes and behaviors that impact their choice of academic major, internship, and career, their perceptions of internships and careers in public transportation, and use of job search methods.  More than 1,000 students at North Dakota State University, Minnesota State University Moorhead, and Minnesota State Community and Technical College participated in the study. The project report can be found online at http://www.ugpti.org/pubs/pdf/DP229.pdf.

Transportation Seminar: Transportation Workforce Development – Are We Ready?

A Transportation Seminar titled "Transportation Workforce Development – Are We Ready?" will be held Dec. 1, 2009 at 1:00 p.m. in Room 422 of the IACC building on the North Dakota State University campus. Workforce Development is a popular term these days, particularly given the changing demographics as ‘baby-boomers’ enter retirement. Much attention is being given to understanding the transportation workforce needs as well as attracting and preparing the next generations of transportation personnel. Join us to hear about and participate in discussions regarding educating, attracting, and retaining workforce within the transportation industry.

Solutions Summit: Public Transportation Workforce Development

The Small Urban and Rural Transit Center recently held a public transportation workforce development summit in Fargo, ND. Participants included current transit professionals from all around the country, representatives from higher educational institutions, and current undergraduate and graduate students. Breakout sessions focused on internships, higher education, and workforce retention.