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FHWA Office of Professional
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Welcome to the StaffNet site for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Professional and Corporate Development (OPCD). The OPCD mission is to work with Agency managers and community partners to identify opportunities to continuously improve the Federal-aid highway program, and then work towards implementing those changes. Through its professional development, knowledge management and technology transfer capabilities, OPCD also provides the necessary training and information sharing to leverage the resources of its transportation partners in pursuit of a common goal – the training, education and professional development of the national transportation workforce.
From 276 million today, the U.S. population is expected to reach 300 million by the year 2020. The number of licensed drivers is nearly 200 million and there are more vehicles per household than licensed drivers. The rate of vehicle miles traveled continues to grow and creates increasing demands on the capacity of the Nation's roadway system. The transportation workforce of the future must address highway safety, traffic congestion, land use, environmental policies, as well as the aging driving population. But there are key workforce challenges facing us:
The Office of Professional and Corporate Development is addressing the growing concern with transportation workforce development by actively pursuing strategies to raise awareness, and by working with its transportation community partners to develop policies and programs to effectively address the issue. The "Transportation Workforce Development" Web site has more information about OPCD and transportation community efforts and can be found at http://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/transworkforce.
The National Highway Institute (NHI) is the training and education arm of the FHWA. The NHI provides leadership and resources for the development and delivery of training and education programs to improve the quality of our Nation's highway system and its intermodal connections. Our mission is to educate, train, and develop the current and future transportation workforce to improve the safety, efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of America's surface transportation system. We actively pursue partnerships with public and private organizations and educational institutions to more effectively meet our mission goals.
Established by Congress in 1970, the NHI provides training, resource materials, and educational opportunities to the surface transportation community. The NHI programs are structured to meet the Nation's need for qualified and skilled transportation workers.
NHI courses are instrumental in developing core competencies and new skills for the surface transportation workforce and in transferring leading technology and current policies in the U.S. and abroad. Incorporating current adult learning principles, the courses have clear learning outcomes to maximize knowledge and skills development. The courses also provide a learner-centered environment that stimulates useful interaction among participants and instructors.
The NHI is authorized to award International Association of Continuing Education and Training (IACET) continuing education units. We strive to ensure the participant leaves the training not only with additional knowledge but the ability to apply that knowledge to their work. Our instructors contact the host prior to the session to determine local issues or points of significance to emphasize. As a result of their expertise, instructors are able to modify case studies and exercises to make them pertinent to the participants' experiences. For more information about NHI including upcoming training events, please visit the NHI website (http://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/)
The mission of the Knowledge Application Team is to cultivate, nurture, and leverage FHWA's collective knowledge to effectively accomplish agency business goals and objectives. The team provides organizational leadership and direction to FHWA's management and staff to implement knowledge management principles and practices, institutionalize knowledge sharing, and enable creation of a comprehensive learning organization. Through the use of innovative tools such as communities of practice, expertise location, and distance learning the Agency is able to:
E-learning continues to receive attention. Development emphasis is currently centered on short courses and those that involve policy or defined processes. FHWA continues to grow in its use of e-learning to meet the goals and business objectives of the organization. Web conferencing continues to be the most used distance delivery method. With 150 sites available free of charge to FHWA offices, Web conferencing is proving to be a valuable information sharing and learning tool.
Recently OPCD began to develop rapid Web-based e-learning using an in-house tool, Adobe Breeze Presenter, at a tremendous savings in time and money over previous development methods. The expectation is that Web-based e-learning will be widely accepted by FHWA as a valuable tool in the coming months.
As more states require Continuing Education Units' for professional education and development, e-learning may prove to be the methodology of choice for busy engineers. Customers can access courses using a variety of delivery systems without having to leave their home base. Web-based training responds to the professional engineer's need for flexible, time-sensitive, cost-effective training without travel or even time away from work. Learners can take courses anytime from any location with Web access using a 56K modem.
The Program Improvement Team's mission is to improve customer satisfaction and organizational performance by assisting FHWA leaders and units in conducting evaluations, and/or special surveys of FHWA programs, policies, and operations to identify best practices and opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness. The team has a major responsibility for supporting FHWA's Program Reviews, and helping assure that those reviews are successful. The team also champions the advancement of the Quality Cornerstones (Leadership, Strategic Planning, Customer and Market Focus, Information and Analysis, Human Resource Development, and Business Results) throughout FHWA by applying continuous improvement principles and practices.
The team manages and delivers consultation and training activities to advance the understanding of quality and support the offices as they apply continuous improvement principles. It works with offices throughout the Agency to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. The team surveys customers to determine how well FHWA is communicating and serving the needs of partners and customers. It assists offices as they review their internal processes and work on developing operational methods that support the performance measures and the FHWA strategic goals.
An important provision in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), (Sec. 5204(e)) legislation provides that funds from any of five major State core programs may be used to support 100 percent of activities related to training, education and workforce development; state matching funds will not be necessary. The core programs are the Surface Transportation Program, National Highway System, Bridge Program, Interstate Maintenance, and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality.
Funds may be used, at the discretion of the States, for employee training, education and professional development, and for transportation career "pipeline" activities including "surface transportation career awareness, student internships and university or community college support." Professional development could include training programs, academic course study, support for short term work details or "rotational" assignments for the purpose of employee development, but may not include employee salaries.
Other workforce development provisions included in SAFETEA-LU are:
