WIRED Academy Discussion

What do you have?

• Arkansas Delta: Apprenticeship program developed, not implemented yet, collaborated with Teamsters to develop.  ADWIRED can share outcomes from this program.
• Arkansas Delta: Developing diesel technology pathway in partnership with Montana State University in Montana WIRED region.
• Arkansas Delta: NSF grant to develop associate's degree in TDL, and bachelor of science degree.  Also joined with DOL/NSF partnership (NSF funded) to help ADWIRED write grant application  for planning grant to develop a national center of excellence in TDL (under Advanced Technology Education program).  Looking to partner with regions across the country to collaborate in this grant -- want to include as many partners as possible.  Will also include the development of national clearinghouse of skill standards for TDL.  Planning process will begin in June.
• Piedmont Triad: Built very strong relationships with educational institutions -- from K-12 to University.  They all agree that logistics is important, and are developing a "regional campus".  Working together to have full articulation agreements between all high schools, community colleges and 4-year schools in the region.
• 39 companies "hurting" for pipeline of workers.  Got grant for $200k from trucking association.  Purchased trucking simulator that schools use to help image problem of the industry.  Put together curriculum.  Just received $400,000 grant to develop...  Put together a "road trip" to have kids/teachers visit sites.
• ADWIRED: State money for truck driver training, connecting recruiting/screening process directly to One Stop system.  One Stops screen and then turn over to training providers.

What do you need?

• How can we join together to go after common resources?
• Item number one is education side of TDL -- how can we work together to share information and best practices in education?
• Money
• People
• Curriculum
• Northern NJ: State Dept. of Education offering small grants to help design programs for particular industry sectors, TDL included.  Began talking to Sunny and Dave about curriculum sharing -- don't reinvent the wheel.
• Moving from warehousing piece to logistics -- logistics is in just about every industry.
• Northern NH: Elephant in the room is efficiency -- we're losing truck drivers because companies simply can't afford to roll (high gas prices, etc.).  We can't be stuck in the same paradigm that we will always be in a petroleum-based economy -- how can we focus on the next technology, increased efficiency, etc.
• We can join collaboratively to engage with other folks that are working on the next paradigm of TDL.  If regions can band together to influence policy, could have great impact.
• Training/education
• Would be helpful if regions were connected to a larger community to demonstrate to companies looking to relocate that they have help.

Next Steps

• Come up with charter -- post online, discuss, hold conference call to finalize, post final
• Competency model/National skill standard clearinghouse: connect ETA competency model work to ADWIRED NSF work to develop a skill standard database
• Specific projects: