MBTA internship trains high schoolers for transport careers
Teens get hands-on experience interning in bus yard in the new MassDOT University program
In the MBTA Cabot Garage, young men surrounded a car on a lift. Wearing bright orange shirts with reflective stripes, navy workpants, blue plastic gloves, protective glasses, and sturdy boots, the five teens were dressed like the other mechanics there. The only difference? They were still in high school.
The students, from Madison Park Vocational High School, arrived at Cabot Garage at 7:30am in morning, 3 days a week, and stayed until 4pm as part of a seven week paid summer internship with the MBTA. On the other days they learned career development skills and visited different sites to see the variety of careers available in transportation.
The internships were part of MassDOT University, a collaborative effort between the MBTA, MassDOT, Roxbury Massachusetts Advanced Polytechnic Pathway Program (RoxMAPP), and Madison Park to increase MBTA recruitment and ease the pathway from school to career.
Last year, the MBTA ran the Summer Transportation Internship program a well, but this was the first year to involve hands-on mechanic work. Billy Walsh, superintendent of the Cabot Maintenance Facility said that the last time they had had a program like this was 10 or 15 years ago.
One of the MassDOT University program’s goals is to reach out to students as young as 8th grade and hopefully make them excited to enter the industry.
Walsh said the MBTA has had trouble finding qualified mechanics.
“There’s a shortage nationwide,” he said. “Not enough youth want to do this work.”
Another purpose of the program was to increase students’ awareness of the breadth of transportation careers available.
Some students took internships in less-publicized transportation fields such as at the MBTA Medical Clinic or in IT. Cabot Garage, too, defies the classic vision of the MBTA: it services about 180 police vehicles and 200 executive cars, and no buses or trains.
“These individuals [in the program] are getting an opportunity to see beyond positions most folks see at the MBTA,” said Troy Ellerbee, Director of Bus Maintenance, Revenue & Non-Revenue Maintenance Garages. “Most folks see bus drivers. [At Cabot] we’re the supporting cast. Most individuals at high school are not aware these possibilities are open for them.”
Skill mastery
At the Cabot Garage, the Madison Park students learned all-around aspects of the shop from how to fix an engine to safe procedures and how to clean up equipment and the workspace. They were paired with mechanic mentors and required to uphold the demands of a real job, including proper attire and punctuality.
Rising junior Tariq Hardy said he enjoyed that the program let him “learn something new every day” and Harold Zapata (rising senior) was happily surprised to find the work hands on.
With employees away on family vacations, the students stepped in to take over the necessary work. “These kids fill that gap…fill a big void for us on our end doing real work while that person is gone,” said Walsh.
Over the course of the program, the Madison Park students reached the point where they could work mostly independently.
“They could come to work here and actually work,” said Walsh.
The students will leave the program with a resume and journal cataloguing the tools they used and jobs they accomplished each day so they can show future employers.
For graduating senior Marc Nelson, the jobs included working on the diesel engines for both an armored car and a tower truck. After high school, Nelson will go on to Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology to study automotive repair. He says he plans to apply to work at the MBTA once he is able to.
Walsh would like to expand the program to take more students, reach out to more vocational tech schools, provide programs like this one during fall and winter school breaks, and make further effort to retain the interns by providing work study programs. “It’s been a good project so far. It needs to ramp up. We could take 50 kids,” he said.
“We’re working with Madison Park along with [other schools] to establish a TransSTEM High school,” said Chris Bond, Director Education & Development for MassDOT/MBTA “This will be a model after we launch it with Madison Park [that] we believe we’ll be able to take across the state to other tech high schools.”
Classroom to career
Eighteen Madison Park students participated in the program this summer. RoxMAPP and Madison Park aim to use this kind of internship program to make a smooth path from classroom to career so graduating students can transition easily into entry-level work.
The outreach to students is just one of a “three-pillar” program by the MBTA to increase their employment. Other initiatives focus on encouraging adults in target communities, including under-employed demographics such as veterans and members of the homeless, to apply for jobs. To further this, MassDOT University will collaborate with Roxbury Community College to provide education and awareness about MBTA jobs they plan to hire for in the next two years and will assist with job preparedness training.
The third pillar focuses on training current MBTA employees for opportunities such as management positions.
MassDOT University is part of a Federal Transportation Authority Ladders of Opportunity Grant Program.
