At a recent meeting in the Detroit Transportation Service Center, MDOT formally rolled out its On-the-Job Training (OJT) Voluntary Incentive Program (VIP) Pilot. The OJT VIP Pilot proposal was developed through the collaborative efforts of MDOT and MITA for the purposes of assessing the impact of contractual bid incentives to increase workforce participation from historically underrepresented populations (minorities, women and disadvantaged individuals). The OJT VIP Pilot proposal received Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) approval under their Special Experimental Project Number 14 (SEP-14) program.
Under the OJT VIP pilot, contractors who voluntarily hire additional OJT employees and/ or collectively provide their current OJT employees more qualified work experience than traditionally occurs can earn bid incentives that can be used on future select projects.
The projects selected for inclusion in the OJT VIP Pilot (i.e., those projects to which a bidder’s earned bid incentive would be applied) will only be in the southeast part of the state within MDOT’s Metro, University, and southern Bay regions (see the OJT VIP Selected Projects list at the link below).
The advertisement for projects selected for inclusion in the OJT VIP Pilot will identify the project as an “OJT VIP Pilot Project”, and it will include a statement that establishes the maximum bid incentive for that project. The earned bid incentive will be used solely for the purpose of determining the lowest responsive bidder.
Contractors who choose to participate in the OJT VIP pilot will demonstrate their commitment to accumulate the OJT training hours required to earn bid incentive during the “Performance Year” (January through December). The first Performance Year of the pilot is calendar year 2018.
Following each Performance Year is the “Incentive Year” (12-month period March through February), during which time a contractor may apply its bid incentive earned in the associated Performance Year to the select OJT VIP Pilot projects. Bid incentives cannot be carried over to other incentive years. The first Incentive Year of the pilot is March 2019 through February 2020.
As currently approved by the FHWA, the OJT VIP Pilot includes two Performance Year (PY) and Incentive Year (IY) pairings:
• PY 2018 … January 2018 – December 2018
• IY 2019-2020 … March 2019 – February 2020
• PY 2019 … January 2019 – December 2019
• IY 2020-2021 … March 2020 – February 2021
Participation in the OJT VIP Pilot is available to all MDOT prequalified contractors, not just those who are currently in the OJT Program and have OJT assignments.
Click here to go to MDOT’s OJT “Voluntary Incentive Program” webpage where you can learn more about the pilot and find the VIP Pilot Program Manual, the OJT VIP Special Provision, the OJT VIP SEP-14 Work Plan, the list of OJT VIP Selected Projects, the OJT VIP Pilot Presentation, and the forms necessary for participation in the pilot.
If you have any questions about this OJT VIP Pilot, you can contact PaHoua Schroeder in MDOT’s Office of Business Development at 517-241-2981, or Glenn Bukoski, VP of Engineering Services, in the MITA office at 517-347-8336.
