Recruiting tomorrow‘s workforce
by Joyce Gottlieb and Will McClure The transportation industry faces a significant gap between the number of skilled positions needed in the workforce and the number of people qualified to
NJLTAP Director’s Message
Spring means it’s time to think about Build a Better Mousetrap entries!
Whether it’s a new gadget that maximizes efficiency or an innovative process that increases safety, reduces costs, ensures quality of road maintenance and improvement projects, it’s typically the people on the front lines who discover the latest and best practices. New Jersey’s Build a Better Mousetrap Competition provides a great opportunity to share those new ideas with others!
We are looking for submissions from employees of local or state public agencies (municipalities, counties, parks commissions, NJ Department of Transportation, NJ Transit) that have come up with innovative problem solutions or found better ways to do certain tasks. Submissions must involve implemented products, procedures, or processes. Based on the following criteria, a state winner will be selected from all of the local public agency entries, and that entry will be elevated to the National Build a Better Mousetrap Competition.
- Cost
- Savings/benefits to the community
- Ingenuity and/or Innovation (innovation is more about the “new thing” or outcome, while ingenuity is more about how a problem is solved or the process)
- Ease of transferability and likelihood of implementation
- Effectiveness
This competition is sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration’s Local Technical Assistance Program and Tribal Technical Assistance Program, and winners will be announced at the annual National LTAP/TTAP Conference. A state winner also will be selected from the NJDOT/NJT entries for the NJDOT Innovator Award that is presented at the Annual NJDOT Research Showcase. Visit the national competition webpage here.
Ready to enter? If you have something you think would qualify for this competition, submit your entry by July 1 (local agency) or August 15 (state agency). Download the entry form here!
Also, we are proud to announce our brand new training page! Using the left hand menu you can now sort classes my location and training topic. Or, if you know the name of the class you want to attend, you can use the search function at the top right hand corner of the web page. Classes can also be displayed in a calendar view giving you a monthly lay out of what we are offering. Check out the new page, and register today!
