|
A message from Paul Klope, Education Chair, 2006-2008
Thank you for taking the time to visit the Education Committee website. Here you will find links to a variety of programs, projects and initiatives the Committee is working on. The work of the committee is very dynamic but this is precisely why it is important to hear from YOU, the APWA member, who has ideas, concerns or solutions to some of our training and educational challenges.
The Committee is made up of six members, many of whom were previously actively engaged in chapter education activities. Additionally, our link to the APWA Board of Directors is through our ex-officio member, Noel Thompson, the President-elect of APWA. Also, FHWA/LTAP has appointed a representative from the FHWA Office of Professional and Corporate Development. This team, supported with input from the nine APWA technical committees and the Congress Program Review Committee, strives to address key training needs for the field of public works – both members and non-members.
The Committee meets monthly by conference call but its main meeting for the year is the early spring meeting (January 28-29, 2008) in which the lineup of all programs to be delivered for the coming fiscal year is discussed, researched and decided upon. If you have input you would like to share with the Committee in this development phase please do not hesitate to contact me directly at paul.w.klope@ci.eugene.or.us or our staff liaison.
Read more
Last year, the Committee conducted a major survey of education needs and also held an Education Summit comprised of chapter education coordinators. Both these activities clearly showed that we have a lot of work ahead of us since the universe of public works employees to be trained is vast and encompasses many disciplines as well as many levels. Funding for training will always be an issue. The need for training will never disappear.
Issues of the Moment: Workforce Development, Sustainability and Agile Education
You have no doubt been reading many of the issues surrounding workforce development and the projected 13 million person gap that we will face in the next ten years when many of the baby boomers will be retired and Generation X just doesn’t have enough numbers to take up the slack. The Education Committee is concerned about this and is focusing its efforts to determine how best to respond to this labor pool shortage of qualified professionals in the public works environment.
Along with this the issue of sustainability – both in personnel and in the design of physical infrastructure demands a new educational outreach that changes many pre-existing notions of how we teach and how the adult learner assimilates education.
Time is the new currency of the decade. No one has enough of it. Everyone is seeking fast responses. So, the Education Committee is seriously looking into methods of developing educational curricula in an agile mode that allows for quicker time to market. Also, people need to receive education in shorter faster chunks delivered at their convenience asynchronously. So, we are considering the myriad of new technology applications to be used as delivery mechanisms to the individual learner.
Clearly the task before us is daunting given the diversity of the public works fields itself. To respond to this demand, we will be working with other associations and organizations in compatible fields which are also providing education in public works. An existing relationship with the FHWA Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) will continue to grow. The fifty-eight LTAP and TTAP Centers are similar in structure to APWA and their exclusive mission is training at the local level. We will continue to support our partnership with the National Local and Technical Assistance Program Association (NLTAPA) to help coordinate educational efforts to small cities and towns. The committee will maintain and strengthen these relationships as well as promote opportunities for new educational partnerships with academia, other associations and private training organizations.
In this fiscal year, the Committee will also be enhancing its goals and tasks list based on some of the suggestions from the Blueprint Task Force on Education and Certification which just finished its 8-month research effort in September 07.
The links that follow are self-explanatory. If you would like further information on any of these items please contact any member of the committee or our staff liaison.
The APWA Education Committee’s mission is to create a learning environment and to serve as a resource for you, the member, to find answers to all your training and professional development needs. We need your help to do this so all input is always welcome.
Thank you for visiting our site, please come back again.
|
National Conference
National Conference
