BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1618
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Date of Hearing: May 16, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1618 (Galgiani) - As Amended: May 1, 2012
Policy Committee: Higher
EducationVote:6-3
Transportation 9-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) to
consult with the University of California (UC), the California
State University (CSU), and the California Community Colleges
(CCC) to determine how the state can best meet the educational
needs for the high-speed rail design, construction, and
maintenance workforce.
The bill requires the HSRA to seek federal funds for this
purpose and to report to the Legislature and the governor by
July 1, 2014 regarding implementation of the above.
FISCAL EFFECT
Given all previous work done on this topic (see below), the
one-time costs of this bill should be minor.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . The author contends that an appropriately trained
workforce is in place to handle the task of building and
maintaining the high speed rail project. A recently published
study prepared by the Mineta Transportation Institute,
"Estimating Workforce Development Needs for High-Speed Rail in
California," examined the workforce demands that will be
created by the project and specifically "various types of gaps
in technology, information, and knowledge needs, with a focus
on the training/education needs that will exist during the
project's design, construction, and operation." Essentially,
the study found that project will create a need for a
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large-scale workforce but that current avenues for training
and education are not well-positioned to sufficiently prepare
future workers.
2)Is This Bill Necessary ? Much work has already been done-by
entities, unlike the HSRA, with expertise on the issue-to
identify workforce and training needs for the high-speed train
project. The Mineta Institute report referenced above provides
a detailed forecast of the types of workers needed for the
high-speed rail project and their likely training and
education needs. The report also identifies areas of training
and education need associated with the advanced technologies
required to build a high-speed rail system, and it benchmarks
the current capacity of the training and education system to
meet this need.
The report found that the need for construction labor is
urgent and preeminent, with lesser but significant needs for
construction management and design engineering workforces
throughout the life of the project. The need to train
operations and maintenance workers was found to be less
pressing, as the fully-operational cycle is not scheduled to
begin until approximately 2021, and it requires a smaller
continuous workforce.
In addition, a coalition of the three higher education
segments, labor organizations, and partnership academies have
already collaborated to identify workforce and training needs
for the project. In a February 2012 report, the collaborative
identified a funding need of $3 million to support creation of
new certificates, courses and degree programs, curriculum
development for those courses, training and capacity building
of faculty and instructional staff, and student recruitment
and outreach. Among several specific activities the coalition
proposes are:
a) Convening the community colleges and system stakeholders
serving the Central Valley region in order to catalog
specific employer-demanded skills, identify skill gaps not
addressed by existing programs or by the other educational
partners, and develop training programs to address the
workforce development needs of the employers/contractors
engaged in the high-speed rail project.
b) Adding options for HSR engineering at the baccalaureate
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level at four CSU institutions, with plans to share
curriculum to maximize state-wide usage of these programs,
to support the workforce of BA/BA, MA/MS, and PhD-level
graduates with high-speed rail-specific training and
education that will be needed.
3)Prior Legislation . SB 964 (Alquist) of 2010, which required a
high-speed rail workforce needs assessment, was vetoed by
Governor Schwarzenegger for cost-related reasons.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081