Aging transportation infrastructure, increasing travel demands, budget limitations, and new regulations continue to challenge transportation asset management (TAM) professionals. TAM professionals are expected to possess technical knowledge and communication skills to lead their agency implementation efforts. These knowledge areas and skills include, but are not limited to, data collection, filtering, and analysis; visualization; multi-criteria decision-making; optimization; communication; and leadership. Unfortunately, academic programs offered by universities are falling short of providing TAM professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills in their formative years. Asset management is a multidisciplinary field that involves aspects of multiple disciplines. Because of its multidisciplinary nature, asset management does not necessarily fit into traditional university programs that are often structured in domain-specific disciplines. Due to the limited offerings at educational institutions, a substantial number of transportation professionals are ill-prepared to take on the responsibilities of a TAM professional and struggle with acquiring these skills on the job while balancing the demands from their daily duties. Nonacademic organizations have developed educational and professional development opportunities in asset management to address this demand, but these offerings are often not targeted to applications in transportation and can be viewed as expensive, time-consuming alternatives that only offer partial solutions to specific gaps in knowledge. 

The objective of this research is to explore the need to develop new curriculum and/or accreditation programs for workforce development in TAM. The project is structured along four tasks. First, the project will identify the competencies and skills transportation asset managers need to successfully develop and implement TAM. Second, a comprehensive review of existing programs offered by universities and nonacademic organizations will be conducted. Third, a gap analysis will be performed to identify gaps between currently available offerings and the desired competencies. Finally, the study will summarize these gaps and recommend needs for the development of new curriculum and/or accreditation programs for workforce development in TAM.