The National Highway Institute (NHI)

The International Association of Continuing Education and Training (IACET) recently approved the National Highway Institute's (NHI) awarding of continuing education units for its courses. As of January 1, 2004, participants will be able to receive IACET continuing education units for successfully completing NHI courses.

IACET is an independent, nonprofit association whose goal is to ensure quality continuing education for professionals. To become a unit provider for continuing education, an organization must demonstrate that it designs and develops training in accordance with proven adult education theory and recognized practices in instructional systems-design.

According to NHI Director Moges Ayele, those who evaluate lifelong learning experiences for professional development recognize the value of training delivered by IACET-accredited organizations. "Our customers expect high-quality, outcome-oriented training," Ayele says. "Being an IACET-authorized provider assures them that we develop and deliver training that meets recognized standards of excellence."

Several factors influenced NHI's decision to become an authorized training provider. First, NHI has a reputation for developing quality training but wanted acknowledgment from the recognized standard bearer in the field. In addition, a trend is growing among States to require annual continuing education for professional employees. Also, States need to make every training dollar count.

Currently, 26 States require professional engineers to participate in annual or biannual professional education. Recognition by the association assures both the professional employee and the employer that taking an NHI course will be a valuable use of time and scarce training dollars.

Accreditation represents another step in NHI's effort to meet the needs of its customers and ensure an environment for continuous improvement. By following IACET guidelines, NHI ensures its customers that they will finish each course having met the learning objectives.

Integrating Pavement Preservation And Management

A new course on pavement preservation will be among the first to offer IACET credit. Available in January 2004, Pavement Preservation: Integrating Pavement Preservation Practices and Pavement Management (#131104) will instruct participants in the benefits of integrating preservation and maintenance activities for roads.

To keep cars running smoothly, auto manufacturers recommend changing the oil every 3 months or 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles). In the same way, strategies to preserve and protect pavements can help ensure the long-term usability of the Nation's roadways by keeping good roads good.

The new course provides basic information about the types of pavement management decisions made by State and local agencies and the data and tools necessary to support those decisions at the project and network levels. Often, preservation personnel, maintenance managers, and State police, for example, use incompatible referencing systems to identify specific sections of road, intersections, or locations. The course brings together representatives from these different areas to discuss obstacles like these and brainstorm agency-specific solutions, such as using global positioning systems to identify key locations. By the end of the course, participants will be able to develop a useful plan for integrating pavement preservation and management that they can take back to their home agencies.

"Pavement preservation programs provide significant benefits to highway agencies," says Steve Mueller, system preservation engineer at FHWA. "Pavement management systems provide the data that agencies need to measure the benefits. This course provides the essential tools and techniques to integrate the two and assure that the right treatment is placed on the right road at the right time."

The fourth in a series of courses on pavement preservation, this 2-day class targets planning and programming personnel and pavement and maintenance engineers who manage preservation programs. The others in the series are The Preventive Maintenance Concept (#131054), Selecting Pavements for Preventive Maintenance (#131058), and Design and Construction of Quality Preventive Maintenance Treatments (#131103).

For more information on the pavement preservation course, contact Ewa Rodzik at 703-235-0524 or ewa.rodzik@fhwa.dot.gov. For scheduling, contact Danielle Mathis-Lee at 703-235-0528 or danielle.mathis-lee@fhwa.dot.gov. To learn more about transportation-related training courses available from NHI, consult the course catalog at www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov or contact NHI at 4600 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 800, Arlington, VA 22203; 703-235-0500 (phone); or 703-235-0593 (fax).