Transit Virtual Career Network
Development of a national Transit Virtual Career Network.
From 2012-2014, the Heldrich Center was part of a large multi-partner effort to develop a national “Transit Virtual Career Network” for the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Innovative Transit Workforce Development Program. The TVCN website, https://www.vcn.org/transit/, highlights up-to-date information on jobs, career paths, and education in the transit industry, providing the nation’s public transportation operators with a dynamic resource to attract and prepare the skilled workforce needed to operate and maintain a 21st-century system. The system integrates data from several sources, including wage, skills, and employment trend data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics and O*Net, as well as customized job descriptions developed by the Heldrich Center. TVCN leverages the expertise of key national organizations, as well as prior FTA investments. The TVCN system includes content on transit careers created by the Heldrich Center under an FTA grant awarded to Rutgers’ National Transit Institute in 2009. The Heldrich Center and the Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT), a designated U.S. Department of Transportation Research and Innovation Technology Administration Tier I University Transportation Center, worked with the American Public Transportation Association and its member agencies to lead and inform the development of TVCN. The American Association of Community Colleges, the XPand Corporation, and the National Association of Workforce Boards led the technical development of TVCN and assisted with dissemination.