Workforce Training Program Makes Electric School Buses in California More Sustainable

California public school districts are increasingly adding electric school buses (ESBs) to their fleets, and they’ll need trained technicians who can keep those buses on the road. A large-scale, accessible training curriculum developed by the California Energy Commission (CEC) and Cerritos College will smooth the transition to electric by helping build a workforce to maintain ESBs. The Electric School Bus Training Program will eventually provide six free courses, developed in conjunction with college faculty, to technicians around the state.

The training program serves school districts that received funding to purchase ESBs, also known as battery electric buses, through CEC’s School Bus Replacement Program. In 2018, this program provided more than $94 million to public school districts and other educational institutions to replace diesel buses with ESBs. The replacement program prioritized low-income and other underserved communities, which are disproportionately affected by air pollution and related health impacts of diesel bus emissions. For many districts, these new ESBs were their first experience with electric vehicles (EVs), and they, along with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), expressed interest in a training program for their technicians.

CEC and Cerritos College responded to this need by creating the Electric School Bus Training Program, drawing on CEC’s history of workforce training in transportation and other early-adopter markets. Cerritos College also has supported workforce development for clean transportation for more than 20 years through their Advanced Transportation and Logistics (ATL) program. This program hosts Long Beach Clean Cities, a Clean Cities and Communities coalition, that has expertise and experience providing technical assistance to fleets for clean transportation projects and working with OEMs. The ATL program brought this experience to the Electric School Bus Training Program, informing their work as they fostered public-private partnerships, developed fleet technician curriculum, and implemented hands-on training sessions.

Course Development

CEC and Cerritos College partnered with the broader California Community Colleges (CCC) system of 115 other community colleges to build the training program courses in collaboration with faculty, OEMs, and ESB experts. The program vetted courses through OEMs but is not specific to any particular OEM or competing with OEM-provided trainings. Using surveys based on teaching experience to determine topics, Cerritos College’s ATL program staff used funding from a $1 million CEC grant to develop six training program courses that community colleges can implement. Four courses have been completed:

• High Voltage Familiarization
• Heavy Duty Electrical 1 – Electrical principles, circuits, and testing
• Heavy Duty Electrical 2 – Batteries, electronic control systems, and sensor technology
• EV Supply Equipment and EV Charging Systems.

Two additional courses are still in development:

• Controller Area Network Communications
• Bus Operator Familiarization.

After creating the first four courses, Cerritos brought in 37 faculty members from across the CCC system for a train-the-trainer session and to gather feedback on the course design. The selected faculty were chosen for their industry experience, subject knowledge, and their ability to teach and address concerns from technicians on the fly. Faculty feedback included adjusting the course organization, evaluating opportunities for technicians to talk to instructors, and evaluating the time allotted for each topic.

Adapting the Program to On-the-Ground Realities

The training program was a success, largely due to the project team’s ability to adapt to the school districts’ needs and the close partnerships created between schools, colleges, bus manufacturers, CEC, and bus technicians statewide.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted plans for in-person technician training before the program even got off the ground, but the project team quickly pivoted to a hybrid model with online components. Cerritos College created an online diagnostic tool for fleet technicians that identified knowledge gaps about EVs, ESBs, and aspects of bus repair. Launching this tool online before implementing in-person training helped technicians review the basics and leveled the playing field for bus technicians before they took an in-person course. The ability to adapt the class based on technicians’ knowledge has been critical to success in ensuring the time spent is valuable.

Once the in-person training began, CEC and Cerritos College worked with faculty, school districts, and technicians to ensure technicians could access training near their school. This created challenges for technicians who worked in remote school districts and lacked easy access to a local community college where trainings could be held. In response, some districts hosted sessions that technicians working in neighboring remote districts could attend.

Cerritos College and CEC launched the first course, High Voltage Familiarization, in the fall of 2022 to 165 technicians in high schools across 24 school districts. Once a second course was also available, they offered promotional webinars, highlighting the benefits of the program and encouraging districts to indicate their interest in bringing the training to their schools. Since then, Cerritos College and CEC adapted High Voltage Familiarization to be an online training course, making the training accessible to technicians everywhere. This allows technicians to begin training anywhere, understand what will be provided at in-person training, and come to trainings more prepared.

Next Steps

CEC staff said the training was very successful. The program has already trained over 300 technicians and received positive feedback from students. Trainees have often been seen staying after class to ask questions and engage with instructors. Many districts are also signing up to continue the trainings with incoming students.

After the initial pilot, CEC expanded the training program to every district in the state by including school districts that received bus funding from the California Air Resources Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program. This expansion will help ESBs be a sustainable option for school districts across the state of California.