Developing a "Recruitment Toolbox" for Transportation Professionals

The transportation engineering workforce in the U.S. is facing a concerning shortage. While the need to address this shortage is well-recognized, substantive tools and funding mechanisms for making progress towards the recruitment of transportation professionals are lacking. In cooperation with the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), this project developed a tool - a Recruitment Toolbox - to better support professional participation in local recruitment efforts. The development process consisted of the following tasks: develop targeted communications plan; develop/distribute solicitation; review other program resources and ITE submissions; develop electronic recruitment toolbox, companion outreach guidelines, and assessment plan; develop/distribute availability announcement, identify venues for "showcase," and document development process/observations. The completed Recruitment Toolbox contains a total of 92 activities that cover a range of age levels (Kindergarten through 12th Grade) and topic areas (e.g., environment and energy, planning and urban development, traffic safety, etc.). The companion Outreach Guidelines focus on understanding your audience and effectively engaging student participants. The proposed Assessment Plan includes three levels of information gathering: website access, pre-activity survey, and post-activity survey. The first two products will be available to outreach providers from the ITE website (www.ite.org) beginning January 2007. The development of the Recruitment Toolbox represents a first step in encouraging higher quality and more frequent outreach to pre-college students. As a next step, existing activities should be reviewed and enhanced with additional preparatory information and/or more constructive hands-on applications. Information gathered through the Assessment Plan can help to guide the priority of improvements.