From the Managing Director
By Tom Kern

In the previous issue of our Newsletter, I shared some background on the workforce development challenges facing the TSM&O community as captured in the first of three White Papers that have been prepared for the June NOCoE Workforce Development Summit.  The second White Paper addresses the needed staff competencies and related education and training. Previous NCHRP studies have identified key staffing needs – as related to key program functional areas –such as policy and strategic considerations, program planning, systems development, project management and real-time operations and typical staff positions such as an ITS Project Manager, a Traffic Operations Engineer or an ITS Technician.

The white paper notes that the TSM&O workforce development challenge is a combination of competency needs, the source of recruits and their backgrounds, and the size and location of the demand. Expansion of TSM&O staff has been modest in light of overall agency constraints and TSM&O lack of program status within most transportation entities.  In general, there has been limited experience with a systematic approach to recruitment and to addressing competency gaps of either existing staff or potential recruits.   Very few agencies have been granted additional slots – most staffing has been in response to retirement and made from internal transfers.

The workforce knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) needed for effective TSM&O programs in public agencies have been developed in previous research – on a function by position basis – whether supplied by a public agency employee or private sector consultant or vendor. TSM&O requires a broad range of competencies related both to the legacy context and to the dynamic system and technology features of TSM&O – as well as the complexities of real-world applications. The KSAs needed include:

• Understanding of the transportation enterprise (public, private) and context (mission, roles, organization, etc.)
• Broad understanding of TSM&O in general
• Systems engineering background (or other technical specialties as appropriate)
• Program and/or project management expertise (general and special)
• Complementary general skills - communications, personnel management, etc.
• TSM&O KSA maintenance in the changing contexts

This suggests that the needed workforce requires a combination of KSAs that are not efficiently supplied by one method or institution – and that a “hybrid” curriculum is needed that portrays the synergism among areas of knowledge. Needed workforce education and training includes both formal pre- and postemployment education and training – as well systematic on-the-job training. 

It is clear from the above, that the workforce development challenge is closely related to those of career development, recruitment and retention. The key connections include identifying competencies to be recruited, realistic position descriptions, potential of credentialing, developing awareness among potential recruits in educational institutions, development of career tracks in the function/position matrix, and development and maintenance of professional capabilities.  These issues and others are addressed in the Summit’s third white paper that I will share in the next NOCoE newsletter.