News

Center Staff Promotes Transit Coach Operator Apprenticeship w/Santa Clara VTA & ATU Local 265

Posted May 2017

From left to right:  Tia Brown, Diana Hermone, Jamaine Gibson, Bobby Hill, Jess Guerra.

Center Program Manager Tia Brown participated in the Paying It Forward session at the APTA conference alongside Diana Hermone and Jamaine Gibson of the Joint Workforce Investment of Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). During this session, Jamaine Gibson and Diana Hermone highlighted the successes of their transit coach operator apprenticeship program, the first registered transit coach operator apprenticeship program in the country.

The Joint Workforce Investment is a jointly funded labor management committee within VTA that focuses on employee development and training including the development of apprenticeship programs. This committee has developed a coach operator apprenticeship program with a major emphasis on mentoring that also provides operators with the opportunity to obtain college credit. This apprenticeship program has garnered over 3 million in external funding and has helped reduce operator turnover, accident rates, customer complaints, and grievances. The Center is working with VTA and 7 other transit agency locations to implement similar types of transit coach operator apprenticeship programs across the United States.

For more information regarding the development and implementation of apprenticeship programs at your location and/or the Center’s American Apprenticeship program, please contact Program Manager, Tia Brown .