NOCoE Academic Forum

The National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) is conducting an active collaborative program with key agency, industry, and educational partners to improve and enhance the Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) workforce. Efforts are being applied across the educational, public agency, and industry environments and activities include: raising TSMO awareness, professional capacity building, and addressing related management and administration issues.

The Academic Forum was held on November 9, 2017. The target of the Forum was pre‐employment education aimed at producing both TSMO generalists and specialists with key support capabilities. Forum participants included a range of educators (both community college and universities), NOCoE Board members, staff, and consultants. It was recognized that a key objective of the Forum was to enhance mutual understanding between educators and practitioners regarding the state‐of‐the‐practice and the challenges faced in improving TSMO education and training.

The Forum opened with a presentation of the main issues developed during the Workforce Development Summit, with respect to the lack of adequate pre‐and post‐employment training, as well as related materials focused on TSMO, including the need to support further mainstreaming of TSMO within transportation agencies and in education.

Joe Butler, Connected Corridors Program Manager, was one of eight presenters and discussed the need for a broad range of interdisciplinary KSAs (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities) to support TSMO.

The full Academic Forum Preceedings are now available for a more complete record of what occurred during the Forum. Joe's presentation on Workforce Development in the Digitial Age is also available.