The Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose (Calif.) State University has attracted to its educational program a diverse group of students and faculty with a vast array of transportation expertise and experiences. Here, students can earn their Masters in Transportation Management (MSTM) and apply that knowledge to their careers.

This blog was created for students, alumni, and faculty, providing a glimpse into the transportation projects and experiences that contribute to the educational quality at MTI. Others with an interest in surface transportation management are welcome to comment or contribute.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Mineta Transportation Institute Publishes Study on Recruiting Candidates into Transportation Careers

Researchers Agrawal & Dill investigate factors that could lead planning and engineering students to specialize in transportation-related work.

San Jose, Calif., September 14, 2009 – The Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) has published Report 08-03, Paving the Way: Recruiting Students into Transportation Careers. This report examines the factors that lead civil engineering undergraduates and urban planning masters’ students to specialize in transportation, as opposed to other sub-disciplines within the two fields.

“As Baby Boomers reach retirement, the transportation industry faces a growing shortage of professional engineers and planners,” said Dr. Asha Weinstein Agrawal, a principal investigator for the study. “One key strategy in solving this problem will be to encourage more civil engineering and urban planning students to specialize in transportation while completing their degrees. This way, employers will have a larger pool of quality recruits.”

However, very little is known about how these students choose a specialization. This report addresses that knowledge gap. The primary data collection methods were web-based surveys of 1,852 civil engineering undergraduates and 869 planning masters’ students. The study results suggest several steps the transportation industry can take to increase the number of civil engineering and planning students who wish to specialize in transportation.

Some of the report’s primary recommendations include broadening the students’ view of the transportation profession; developing course modules that highlight the interdisciplinary nature of transportation
planning; providing more and better publicized scholarships and research assistantships; changing women’s perception of the transportation profession as unwelcoming to them; having women transportation planners as guest speakers and mentors; and several other recommendations.

Besides Dr. Agrawal, the other principal investigator for the study was Dr. Jennifer Dill.

The free document can be downloaded from http://www.transweb.sjsu.edu/. Click “Research” and then “Publications.” Scroll down to the report.
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