Proliferating Transportation-Related Careers Through the National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI)

Abstract

It is difficult to find a more diversified field than the transportation sector. Having a successful and viable transportation network requires upkeep of the physical infrastructure, grounds and machinery to enable travel over land, rail, air and water, the development of technologies in support of more efficient and safe travel as well as the digital foundation and skills to facilitate decision-making. In addition to the wide range of skills required within this field, long-range transportation planners must account for skills and technologies that are required at the current time, as well as those that do not even exist yet. With relatively newer technologies such as autonomous vehicles, smart cars, global positioning systems, high-speed rail networks, gyroscopic vehicles and high-precision logistics, transportation planners must be forward-thinking to ensure these technologies seamlessly integrate with current skillsets while replacing existing transportation positions that are being vacated by an increasingly higher number of workers as the baby-boomer generation reaches retirement age.
In response to these current and future needs, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), with support from the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), developed the National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI) as a means to expose middle and high school students to transportation-related careers through classroom instruction, field experience and enhancement activities designed to foster soft-skill development. During the Summer of 2018, North Carolina Central University (NCCU) was provided funding by the FHWA and NCDOT to offer a 2-week commuter NSTI camp in July of 2018. Eighteen students, among them seventeen minority students and seven women, applied for and were accepted for this summer’s camp. In addition to classroom instruction and enhancement skills, students took a trip of the new light rail network route planned for the Chapel Hill-Durham region, visited the North Carolina Transportation Museum via an Amtrak train, rode bicycles on the American Tobacco Trail and visited the Division of Aviation at the NCDOT as a sample of the various modes of transportation. The camp culminated in group presentations by the students that addressed a transportation-related problem in the state. For example, one group used an Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle (UAV), or drone, to monitor traffic around the NCCU campus while another group used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to find solutions to the parking issues on the NCCU campus. Pre-camp and post-camp surveys highlighted students learned and retained the concepts, terms and places covered during the camp while opened ended questions accentuated their preparation for the upcoming academic year. It is hoped that this camp can encourage high-school aged students, especially those from underrepresented groups, towards transportation-related careers and provide them with the technical acumen and soft-skills to be successful transportation professionals.