Training in tune with the future - railroad curricula at community colleges - Cover Story

Railway Age, Nov, 1993 by Gus Welty

Railroads and community colleges across the nation may soon be working together to train skilled workers, expanding on a program pioneered by Burlington Northern.

What would it be worth, for railroads and rail unions, if there were a pool of well-trained people available to hire, people skilled in operating and/or non-operating crafts, people who had the basics before they come onboard?

Burlington Northern and Johnson

County, Kan., Community College beleive it might be worth quite a lot. That's why they're working together to set up just such a program.

This is not a new relationship. BN's Technical Training Center has been located on the campus of JCCC since 1988, and recently, the BN operation was expanded by about three-fold.

What the railroad and the college are looking at now is the kind of expansion that will bring in a number of other railroads and a number of other community colleges, in a network to serve the needs of the first with the capabilities of the second.

It could happen. JCCC already awards an associate degree in railroad electronics, thanks to its relationship with BN. JCCC and BN are now looking at the award of an associate degree in railroad technology.

* Shaping a railroad curriculum.

Earlier this year, representatives of a dozen organizations met at BN's Technical Training Center in Overland Park, on the JCCC campus, for discussions. Railroads represented were BN, Canadian National, CP Rail, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, Southern Pacific and Union Pacific.

Remarkably, in two days, they developed the beginings of a core curriculum. Feedback came quickly, and at a meeting to be held soon at UP's training facility in Salt lake City, it's presumed that the movementt will make further progress. For its part, JCCC is in touch with other major community colleges to determine their interest.

And it could be that, begining with the fall semester of 1994, an associate degree program could be in place, not just at JCCC but at other community colleges in appropriate locations across the country.

There's a lot of practicality here, and a lot of credit should go to BN and JCCC for the idea--to Mike Volcker, the first director of BN's Technical Training Center, to Ed Butt, its current director, and to Chuck Carlsen, president of JCCC, an ex-Chicago guy who knows what challenges and opportunities are all about, in terms of community college programs.

The core curriculum the railroads and the college have in mind looks like a good one, much in tune with what the future in railroading will require. And it recognizes the fact that many students coming out of high school today are lacking in the basics.

Brainstorming a core curriculum, railroad and college people talked about basics: skills in reading, writing, math, and interpersonal communications. They talked about needs in the areas of resource management, various science, team skills, business ethics, computing skills, risk management, and critical-thinking/problem-solving. Railroad-specific areas included safety, terminology, labor relations, an introduction to crafts, industry history and culture, operations/regulations, railroad economics, the whole are ofc markets and business bases, the role of railroading in transportation, and the quality process.

All of this brainstorming may produce action, and it probably should. In the meantime, BN moves ahead with the original mission of the TTC.

* Inside the TTC. BN calls Over-land Park facility "the all-in-one railroad training center," and it pretty much is. Training is provided in seven major area-clerical, control systems, train dispatching, locomotive engineer, maintenance-of-way, mechanical, and telecommunications/system electronics.

With downsizing, there are requirements for cross-training and for the learning of new skills. The TTC addresses that. It is also putting an even stronger emphasis of safety-related instruction, as BN attempts to improve on a safety record that has ranked at the bottom, among major railroads.

BN began its formal technical training in 1985, before moving to JCCC three years later. Since '85, it has provided more than 25,000 "student weeks" of training. This year, the TTC will train more than 7,200 employees in 65 courses. The numbers for 1992 were 5,170 employees and 57 courses.

And with the expansion at JCCC, BN now has new hands-on laboratories in freight car maintenance, maintenance-of way, hydraulics, mechanical, and signal operations.

Locomotive engineer training is still conducted on an IITRI full-motion simulator and on non-dynamic simulators. But BN has demounted simulators it had in two mobile units that traveled the system. That process, BN found, was a high-cost and low-utilization operation that also didn't produce good results in terms of actual training.

Now, BN is in the process of acquiring two more simulators, which may be installed by the end of the year. That will give the TTTC seven units, one full-motion and six fixed-base.