ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 13, 1996 TAG: 9604150037
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
VIRGINIA WESTERN Community College will offer a two-year program in railroad operations.
If you have a technical aptitude or like working with machinery and find a $25,000 to $30,000 starting salary with good fringe benefits attractive, a new program at Virginia Western Community College may be for you.
This fall, the Roanoke school will offer a two-year program leading to an associate in applied science degree in railroad operations. Local sponsors are Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX Transportation.
Only eleven colleges across the United States and Canada are offering the program, which North America's largest railroads hope will help fill a need for about 15,000 new hires annually over the next several years. NS projects it will need about 500 new employees yearly across its 21-state system.
New students and railroad employees who want to upgrade their skills and increase their chances for promotion may be interested in the program. NS will reimburse the tuition of employees who enroll, said Joe Gelmini, director of the railroad's McDonough, Ga., training center.
Executives from seven of North America's largest railroads, including NS, gathered at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kan., in 1993 to plan the nationwide program. Programs in railroad electronics in the early 1990s at the Kansas school and St. Lake Community College in Utah to train workers for the Burlington Northern and Union Pacific railroads set a precedent for the broader effort.
The program at Virginia Western will have three main elements: a strong academic core of courses; four railroad-specific courses; and a minimum of four technical or business courses, explained Wayne Michie, chairman of the college's engineering and industrial technology division. Both day and evening classes will be offered.
Specific railroad courses, whose curriculum was developed by the railroads, themselves, will be taught by professionals from the railroad industry. One course will involve field trips to observe and study local railroad operations.
NS approached Virginia Western about offering the program in July 1994, and the State Council of Higher Education approved it in February.
Michie said the school will initially publicize it in the college's service area and expects a fall enrollment of about 60 students. Because of its uniqueness, he said he expects the program could attract students from a much broader area.
The program should help dispel the public notion of railroading as a dying industry and raise its image as a modern industry incorporating the latest technologies, Gelmini said.
Someone who would gain from the program is someone who wants to make railroading a lifelong career, he said.
Over the past several years, the entire railroad industry has cut back its work force, giving fewer employees more work to do. But technological changes and other improvements have made railroads more efficient and increased their business. This in turn has created a demand for more workers.
As the railroads look for new workers, they are searching out people with broader skills than those hired in the past, Gelmini said. The program's course work is intended to develop computer literacy as well as communication, business, academic and other skills.
The types of jobs for which graduates would become eligible include: customer service, conductor, yard crew, dispatching, signal systems, mechanical, electrical and telecommunications. NS doesn't hire entry-level workers to be locomotive engineers, but graduates could become eligible for that work after they gained experience.
Applicants for the program will be required to pass the normal railroad entrance requirements, including background checks and a physical, Gelmini said. NS hopes women and minorities will take advantage of the offering, he said.
In addition to Virginia Western, NS is sponsoring similar programs at Tidewater Community College in Norfolk, Pellissippi State Technical Community College in Knoxville, Tenn., and Clayton State College in Morrow, Ga. CSX is also the sponsor of a program at Florida Community College in Jacksonville.
A formal ceremony announcing the program is planned at Virginia Western on Friday at 1 p.m. in the Kinsley Learning Center. For more information, call 857-7275.
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. Roger Saunders routes trains at theby CNBNorfolk Southern dispatch center in Roanoke.