Rowan University in New Jersey – with a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation – is seeking ways to speed up the movement of engineering graduates into transportation jobs with both private industry and government entities.
[Above photo by Rowan University]
Rowan’s Transforming Graduate Education in Transportation Engineering program – funded by a NSF grant from its Innovations in Graduate Education of IGE program – leverages the “cognitive apprenticeship model” to revolutionize how doctoral students transition their skills from research to real-world practice.
The school said “cognitive apprenticeship” is an educational model that focuses on teaching students the processes experts use to execute complex problem-solving tasks.
Where traditional apprenticeship may emphasize physical skills, cognitive apprenticeship centers on cognitive skills and processes – using step-by-step guidance, coaching, decision-making, and performance measurement to impart a greater understanding of the processes to accomplish specific problem-solving tasks, the school said.
[Editor’s note: A knowledge session held at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials 2023 Annual Meeting in Indianapolis addressed current and future workforce recruitment and retention issues in the transportation sector.]
At its core, the school said its new program aims to “bridge the gap” between theoretical research and practical application in the field of transportation engineering. Utilizing the cognitive apprenticeship model, the program immerses graduate students in hands-on, real-world scenarios where they can apply their research directly to industry challenges.
This innovative approach ensures that students are not only adept at conducting innovative research but also proficient in translating their findings into tangible solutions, explained Yusuf Mehta, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Rowan and leader of the program.
“Our goal is to create a new generation of transportation engineers who are equally comfortable in the lab and in the field,” he explained in a statement.
“By embedding cognitive apprenticeship into our curriculum, we provide our students with the skills and confidence they need to make a real impact,” Mehta said. “The integration of mentorship and direct industry experience is critical to our program’s success. Our students benefit from the wisdom of experienced professionals and the opportunity to evaluate their ideas in real-world environments.”
State departments of transportation have also established their own programs to address a variety of workforce recruitment and retention issues.
For example, the New Mexico Department of Transportation recently received formal support from the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions or NMDWS for NMDOT’s Industry Credential Pipeline Program that seeks to connect job seekers to career opportunities within the transportation sector.
NMDOT said it created the pipeline program to prepare individuals for high-demand roles by integrating on-the-job learning and industry credentialing to build the transportation industry pipeline from an early stage in key areas such as planning, engineering, finance, budgeting, economics, commercial driver licensing, and Geographic Information Systems.
Meanwhile, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has partnered with the Center for Employment Opportunities in its District 5 and District 6 regions since 2019 to provide employment services exclusively to former prison inmates so they may get hands-on crew experience in landscaping, graffiti removal, rest area cleaning, and litter pickups as part of a job skills program aimed at putting them on the path to gainful employment.
The Nebraska Department of Transportation recently established the “Good Life, Great Journey” program to provide scholarships for individuals pursuing two-year technical degrees in critical transportation-related fields, such as diesel technology, electronic systems, drafting/design, and land surveying.
The agency said that its new “Good Life, Great Journey” program will not only provide recipients with financial resources to fund their technical education, but also give them the opportunity to gain real world experience by interning at a Nebraska DOT facility.
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