Workforce Training for School Bus Fleets

The transition to clean school buses has highlighted the significance of education in fleet management, as skill development provides school bus operators with the knowledge to maintain alternative fuel vehicles and infrastructure. Cerrito College and the Salt Lake City School District exemplify how schools can utilize or create workforce training programs to educate fleet employees on alternative school buses. 

Alternative fuel school buses introduce new technologies that necessitate educational programming for fleet operators and technicians. For example, electric buses have different charging and maintenance needs, as well as driving techniques, compared to diesel buses (Electric School Bus Initiative). This means drivers and technicians need to adapt fleet practices for clean fuel bus use, and workforce training prepares employees for this transition. 

In Utah, the Salt Lake City School District has utilized driver training during its transition to an electric bus fleet. The district has already introduced 12 electric school buses into operation, with a goal to reach 75 electric vehicles by 2035. To prepare drivers for this transition, the district has trained bus operators on driving techniques for electric buses. This training highlights variances in power usage and strategies to increase range efficiency, equipping drivers with necessary skills to operate electric school buses (AFDC 2025). 

Through a collaboration with the California Energy Commission, Cerritos College created the Electric School Bus Training Program, which reflects a growing trend of educational institutions providing workforce training specific to alternative fuel vehicles. The program provides free courses to fleet technicians from California schools switching from diesel to electric buses. The Electric School Bus Training Program was developed in partnership with the California Community Colleges (CCC) network of 115 institutions to make training widely available to school fleet technicians across the state (AFDC 2024). 

Workforce training is a necessary element of the transition to alternative fuel school buses, as educational programming prepares school fleet employees to operate and maintain the vehicles.

For Oregon fleets switching to clean fuel vehicles, the CWCC offers in-person and online training sessions on AFV ownership. To learn more and request a training session, check out the CWCC Workforce Training Hub here. 

Sources: 

AFDC 2024 

AFDC 2025 

Electric School Bus Initiative