Public Roads had a specific organizational unit responsible for training.
The new Junior Engineer Training Program was planned to provide 3 years’ training in rotational assignments in different parts of the country and to give the trainees the best possible foundation for a career in Public Roads. Subject to satisfactory performance, the trainees received a scheduled promotion during training and a promotion upon graduation and a regular assignment. Recruiting was directed toward graduating seniors in colleges and universities, but highway engineers within Public Roads could be selected for entry into the program.
The Highway Engineer Training Program (HETP), as it is now called, has continued without interruption since 1946. Recruitment started modestly with an annual quota of approximately 15; from 1949 through 1956, the annual recruitment averaged about 33 per year. Following enactment of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 with its greatly expanded program, 76 individuals were enrolled in 1957 and 170 in 1958.
In 1961 a master’s 18-month training program was added to provide a training vehicle for approximately 10 candidates with master’s degrees per year. This program was directed toward development of a quality source of individuals for positions in research, planning and structures. From 1961 to 1972, the recruitment for both programs averaged about 75 new trainees per year. Since then the average has been about 60 trainees per year in both programs.
From 1946 through 1974, a total of approximately 1,600 individuals have entered the Highway Engineer Training Program. Approximately 85 percent of all graduates have remained with the organization. A number of these graduates have reached key positions in the FHWA organization: six of nine Regional Administrators are HETP graduates; two of six Associate Administrators; and 33 of 52 Division Administrators. The FHWA Executive Director, Lester P. Lamm, was a 1960 graduate.
To insure that the program would continue to be responsive to the needs of the Bureau and the career development of its engineers, there have been periodic searching reviews of the entire program. Two other major management efforts have contributed to the effectiveness of the HETP in providing engineering manpower consistent with the Bureau’s projected needs. The first of these occurred in 1961 when a task force was named to conduct a manpower utilization study on field engineers. Engineering manpower needs—numbers and skills—were projected 10 years into the future. In 1974 a similar task force conducted a complete manpower utilization study of the entire organization and projected FHWA’s personnel needs and skills over the next 10 to 15 years. The annual recruiting quotas for the HETP have been based largely on the two studies.
Until 1953 formal inservice training was limited to the Highway Engineer Training Program. In that year, inservice training was formalized and greatly expanded. Field enigneers were encouraged to attend courses and conferences held in the Washington headquarters. Then in 1955 an annual comprehensive inservice and outservice agencywide training program was initiated to assess training needs on a priority basis.
With enactment of the Government Employees Training Act of 1958, an active outservice training program began. The Act not only authorized the use of agency funds for training in Government and non-Government facilities, but it prescribed that all agencies must establish, operate and maintain a program and plans for the training of their employees. The two major new areas of training which were opened up as a result of this Act were: (1) Full-time or part-time enrollment in colleges and universities; and (2) attendance at meetings, conferences, seminars, etc., that would contribute to improved performance of the employees’ duties and responsibilities.
The Bureau immediately initiated an extensive Full-Time Graduate Study Program. Over a period of approximately 18 years, 240 employees have enrolled in full-time graduate study.
As the program has grown both in size and into disciplines other than engineering, the Bureau has added several other professional career intern programs structured basically on the format established for the successful Highway Engineer Training Program. The procedures were the same, that is, to employ outstanding college and university graduates and to provide rotational training assignments during a formal training curriculum. Other employee career development programs have also been instituted for employees in all grade levels.
These programs have included formal curriculums for management specialists (1960), right-of-way officers (1962), auditors (1964), civil rights specialists (1969), and a national upward mobility program for administrative and professional type positions (1974). Other areas of career development have included executive development, environmental specialists, and motor carrier safety investigators. As a part of FHWA’s equal employment opportunity action plan, an upward mobility education program was begun in 1973 to assist lower grade employees to attend courses so that they may be qualified to compete for better positions.
Obviously, the strong emphasis on training within FHWA has influenced the economical staffing of the Federal agency that administers the Federal-aid highway program. Congress saw the validity of this philosophy and, in the 1970 Highway Act, authorized the creation of a National Highway Institute (NHI) with the express purpose to “. . . develop and administer, in cooperation with the State highway departments, training programs of instruction for Federal Highway Administration and State and local highway department employees engaged or to be engaged in Federal-aid highway work.”
The NHI is not a physical facility, such as a school with classrooms, but is an administrative organizational element. Its operating costs are funded from FHWA’s regular appropriation for administrative expenses, which tends to limit the amount of direct training that the Institute can undertake.
The Institute has established itself as a significant source of training in the highway field. During fiscal year 1974, the NHI sponsored 10 separate courses and workshops at various locations throughout the United States, involving about 5,500 State, local, and FHWA
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