Leadership from the Southwest Transportation Workforce Center (SWTWC) and Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) addressed the value of transportation career pathway research and programmatic development during the opening lunch session at the International Urban Freight Conference (I-NUF) sponsored by the METRANS Transportation Center on October 18. But high school student Angelique Terrazas, from the Academy of Global Logistics (AGL) at Cabrillo High school, was the highlight of the session.
From left to right: CITT Executive Director Tom O’Brien, AGL student Brandon Gonzalez, CITT Director of Trade and Transportation Programs Angeli Logan, AGL student Alvaro Padilla, AGL student Daisy Palomera, and CITT Director of Research Tyler Reeb.
SWTWC Associate Director Tyler Reeb opened the session addressing the need for transportation workforce development research and the issues that such research has identified. Reeb discussed critical workforce development challenges affecting supply chain employers such as demographic shifts, transformational technologies and associated skills gaps, competition with other industries, and the critical need for formal soft skills training.
Itson then introduced Terrazas, who shared firsthand how joining AGL has influenced her goals and career prospects. Terrazas explained how she entered high school with little guidance or direction for her long-term professional goals. Her involvement in AGL provided her opportunities to develop her leadership skills through coordinating fundraising for AGL. She also gained work experience in a summer internship with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and, to the audience’s amusement, related her amazement as she witnessed negotiations between labor union representatives and the PMA, which sometimes turned contentious.
METRANS hosted the seventh International Urban Freight Conference (I-NUF) at the Hyatt Regency in Long Beach on October 18-20, 2017. Click here to read more about conference papers and presentations.