Safety Workforce Planning Workshop

The Safety Workforce Planning Workshop was held in San Antonio, Texas on April 3-4, 2002. The workshop was co-sponsored by FHWA, ITE, AASHTO, and TRB.   It was attended by representatives of organizations in the highway safety community who assessed the needs of the safety workforce, and they discussed steps that could be taken to ensure that transportation agencies have a capable workforce available to meet future needs. 

Some of the key topics of the workshop included legislation to improve safety training and education, strategies to provide continuous professional development, and an approach to address workforce planning for the US DOT. The workshop attendees recommended that the enforcement, engineering, education, and emergency medical services communities be involved in safety education and safety awareness outreach.  It was also recommended that changes made through traditional safety partners be incorporated into the programs of external agencies such as driver’s education courses, so that safety information can be transferred to a larger audience.  

At the end of the workshop, the attendees drafted policy recommendations that included developing safety training programs to prepare the workforce for their roles and responsibilities, establishing and funding a road safety curriculum, and having safety training that is performance driven.    They suggested establishing a clearinghouse for training resources. The participants also recommended measuring the success of safety training by having performance evaluations of safety professionals and by measuring reductions in of fatalities, injuries, and crashes.

The following were some policy recommendations derived by the workshop participants:

• Provide direct funding for training and education, include training in the agencies' strategic plan, and have a workforce plan to address highway and occupational safety needs.
  
  
• Establish and maintain a comprehensive system of quality safety training that (1) includes a clearinghouse for training in the 4 E’s (engineering, education, enforcement, and emergency medical systems); (2) assures the quality integration, timeliness and appropriateness of the training; and (3) ensures integration of safety in related disciplines.
  
  
• Make safety training a requirement for all safety related positions. Make a CEU requirement in existing licensing programs. Have professional organizations offer CEU’s in safety.  Establish certification programs for specific jobs.
  
  
• Define and implement a national, state, and local team effort with specific targets (reduction in fatalities and disabling injuries) and make sure financial and human resources are available and adequately trained.
  
  
• Legislate and institutionalize explicit consideration of safety at all level of transportation.
  
  
• Establish ongoing program to retain and educate the safety workforce that is goal and performance driven.

People interested in finding more about the results of the workshop or workforce planning can contact Kristine.Leiphart@fhwa.dot.gov.