As summer winds down, I’m looking forward to our upcoming training season which begins a yearlong time of growth at MnLTAP. We’ll be adding an additional Roads Scholar certificate and several new courses throughout 2026 and 2027. And, following our successful rollout of the Civil Technician Level I certificate in 2023 — with 116 enrollees and three graduates since 2023 — we will continue growing that program, too.
In July, MnLTAP received a one-time grant from the Local Road Research Board to expand our Civil Technician Level II and III courses, resulting in several new offerings available to local agency employees. We introduced the curriculum for the Civil Technician Level II certificate last fall, which includes a new Math for Civil Engineering Technicians course. In the short time the Level II program has been offered, we have had five enrollees. MnLTAP will continue to expand this program and offer the remaining two courses — Introduction to GIS and Inspection Level II — this training season.
In addition, we’re currently developing the Civil Technician Level III certificate curriculum, which we anticipate will be available online this fall. Every course in the new certificate will be held by June 2028, so there’s plenty of time to plan ahead.
We also successfully piloted our Environmental Review Training course in May. This one-day in-person course will now be offered across the state in every MnDOT district this fall and winter. It provides local agency employees a basic blueprint on how to complete environmental reviews for federal- and state-funded projects. I will be working with each MnDOT district state aid engineer to schedule these courses across the state.
This rapid growth is a result of many requests for more training from local agencies, as well as the positive response to Roads Scholar courses. Please continue to visit MnLTAP’s training calendar for course updates and registration information. If you have any additional training needs or ideas, please reach out to us!
—Andrew Wrucke, MnLTAP director
