The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) launched its Early Career Program, a brand new national program dedicated to providing public and private sector public transportation professionals early in their careers with the skills, knowledge, insights, and networks needed to grow and succeed.

APTA's President/CEO Michael Melaniphy and Chair Flora Castillo sent out the following letter:

Dear Colleagues:
We are pleased to launch APTA's Early Career Program, an innovative new year-long professional development program for rising public and private sector members of the public transportation industry.

This new program is the direct result of studies identifying this early career population as one of the most vulnerable to leave the industry.
The Early Career program aims to broaden awareness of the breadth and depth of our industry. It is designed for those with three to five years of work experience, including one to two years in management.

Participants will attend customized workshops, site visits, and virtual sessions to sharpen their skills as new managers in areas including communications, budgeting, project and program management, and supervision. A hallmark of the Early Career Program will be an industry mentoring program.

Please give serious thought to nominating your most promising professionals who are early in their transit career. APTA plans to select 25 participants representing the diversity of our industry. The program will have its inaugural session in Philadelphia a few days prior to the 2013 APTA Rail Conference.

The attached flyer provides program summary information. Further details, including planned curricula, sessions, mentor program, fees, application requirements, and the upcoming March 22 application deadline can be found on www.apta.com/early-career-program.

If you have questions, do not hesitate to contact APTA’s Joe Niegoski at jniegoski@apta.com.

We look forward to seeing members of your organizations as applicants for APTA’s Early Career Program.