By Karen Hawthorne

Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation is looking to beef up its workforce with a new entry-level recruitment training program for graduates of civil and geotechnical engineering university programs.

Called the Engineering Development Program (EDP), the four-year program was designed to address staffing shortages MTO predicts in five years as the result of early retirements and an aging workforce. The program offers competitive compensation and provides Engineers-in-Training (EITs) with the opportunity to obtain the required work experience for licensure as a professional engineer through Professional Engineers Ontario.

"It’s a classic win-win situation," says Peter Makula P.Eng., manager of engineering in MTO’s Northwestern Region. "EITs get exposure to a wide variety of engineering experience within a relatively short time frame and the ministry gets people who are knowledgeable about ministry business, policy and operations."

Participants spend four years on six- to 12-month rotational work assignments under the mentorship and supervision of professional engineers within the respective departments. The EITs spend six to 12 months at head office or another region to further enhance their experience. The assignments range from highway design and construction to bridge engineering and environmental impact assessments, and include operations such as road maintenance and snowplowing. The EITs have opportunities to attend conferences and classroom training sessions, and mentors help the EITs develop a custom learning plan to be used for evaluation and discussion throughout the program. At the completion of the four-year term, participants are required to compete for more senior positions within the organization.

"Often, when engineers start out, they can get pigeonholed into a narrow specialty," says Makula. "In the EDP, there is a wide variety of assignments and you end up with expertise in a range of areas, and you can still specialize later on. At the end, you should have your credentials and a broad base of experience."

More than 300 applications were received for 12 positions. That first wave of successful candidates began work in late spring of this year.

Matthew Devaux, EIT, graduated from the University of Western Ontario’s civil engineering program in April. He planned to continue his studies and received an Ontario Graduate Scholarship for research in a Master’s program. But when he saw the MTO presentation at a university career fair, he decided the hands-on, practical work experience was the way to go. He made the "cut" and is now working out of the Southwestern Region’s London office in planning and design.

"The main thing is the experience, the mentoring and the supervision that you get," says Devaux, 24. "There’s such a sharing of knowledge and expertise. I want to absorb as much as I can." He already says there’s a strong possibility he’ll stay with MTO at the end of the term.

Devaux is working on designs for the reconstruction of Highway 3, a two-lane highway that needs to be "shaved and paved" and possibly turned into a three-lane highway.

"There are traffic issues, property issues and drainage issues," he says of the project. "There are going to be many homeowners and businesses affected." He is also organizing a series of public information sessions in the fall to demonstrate the project. "I’m even dealing with the Coast Guard, and school boards about bus routes, responding to people’s concerns – things that you don’t learn from textbooks," he says.

Another participant, Kathy Malkoske, EIT, was drawn to the program because of her interest in construction and transportation. She had worked for two summers with Manitoba’s Highways and Transportation office, studying traffic volumes on roadways. A civil engineering graduate from the University of Manitoba, Malkoske was hired by MTO as a traffic analyst in January 2000. Now in the EDP, she is working out of the Eastern Region’s Kingston office, where she is preparing a study of a rural intersection that will result in a report on techniques to manage traffic in construction zones.

Malkoske describes the EDP is an excellent opportunity: "I’m familiar with how government organizations work. Each region is different. I think the experience gained from just going to different regions and meeting different people is a benefit."