As PATCO’s electrical maintainers must be skilled across signal, high-power, and commercial electrical applications, TRA created a program plan that addressed those needs with an eye toward safety, while also being conscious of the agency’s available resources to administer the program and conduct classroom and on-the-job training (OJT). The resulting product was a plan for a two-year apprenticeship program with on-site, hands-on training to deliver foundational, transit-specific, and PATCO-specific topics by both an external training vendor and PATCO’s experienced technical staff.

TRA researched apprenticeship programs to model a course outline for PATCO in which classroom training will alternate with several weeks of OJT to reinforce the theoretical and laboratory concepts. TRA also researched and evaluated the capabilities of several vendors to deliver the foundational coursework to be taken by the apprentices.