Frequently Asked Questions

Updated: March 18, 2022

Online training

Our open enrollment online training courses are continuing as scheduled without interruption, and we're scheduling more.  Some of the classes we converted from in-person to online have been very well-received and we may continue to offer some of these online instead of in-person even after covid-19 restrictions are lifted.

Classroom training

At long last, we are once again offering some in-person, open enrollment classes. We have scheduled a few of our most in demand and requested classes, starting with those that were cancelled last year at the start of the pandemic, and will be adding a few more as conditions allow. 

We will also continue to offer hosted in-person classes, such as work zone safety training and other courses on request at your location. If you'd like to request a hosted course, please contact us by email.

For all in-person classes, we will meet or exceed recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the California Department of Public Health, and guidance from the University of California, Berkeley regarding events, as well as any local health department directives from the jurisdiction in which the class is located. At this time, that means that in most of our classrooms physical distancing among class participants is not required. We will be providing and encouraging use of hand sanitizer and discouraging hand shakes. In compliance with current UC requirements regarding masks, we will strongly recommend but not require masks indoors, unless the course is being held in a jurisdiction that requires mask wearing at the time the course is held. 

Office operations 

Most TechTransfer staff are working remotely. Please continue to contact us by email.  

TechTransfer is the California transportation community's source for training, continuing education, and professional development. We provide training in classrooms and online, including open enrollment and contracted training, host workshops and conferences, and can customize training to meet your needs.  Our programs span the transportation-related areas of planning and policy, traffic engineering, project development, infrastructure design and maintenance, safety, environmental issues, complete streets, active and multimodal transportation, rail, and aviation. We serve more than 25,000 public and private transportation agency personnel working for our state's 476 cities, 58 counties, over 50 regional transportation planning agencies (MPOs, RTPAs, CTCs and CMAs). We hold over 80 events every year, attended by over 3,000 people. 

No, to reach the University of California, Berkeley's Office of Intellectual Property and Industry Research Alliances click here.

For information on how to enroll, methods of payment, and more, visit this page.

Much of our training is delivered in partnership with the California Department of Transportation, Division of Local Assistance under the Cooperative Training Assistance Program. Pavement classes are now offered in partnership with the City and County Pavement Improvement Center, hosted by the University of California Pavement Research Center, and funded by California Senate Bill 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 Through these partnerships, employees of eligible public agencies may a reduced registration fee for many of Tech Transfer's courses. Private industry, out-of-state professionals public and private, as well as Federal employees and California public employees not working for a transportation agency are welcome in our training classes, but are asked to pay the full fee for training.

The instructional faculty of TechTransfer includes more than 60 leading transportation engineers, planners, and academicians working in California and elsewhere. You can view the entire list of instructors with their bios here. To learn more about teaching for our program, please review the information here.

Our goal is to provide California's transportation professionals with the information and training needed to plan, design, build, maintain, and operate a state-of-the-art, multimodal transportation system that is safe, efficient, and sustainable.  We develop new courses every year and are always looking for new topics. If you have suggestions for us, please contact us at courses@techtransfer.berkeley.edu. We want to hear from you!

To find out whether a particular class is currently scheduled in or near your city, browse our Training Calendar by Location. If our pre-scheduled training courses don’t work for you, nearly all the training courses from TechTransfer are also available on request, provided that an agency contract for the entire course or that we can meet a minimum number of students through open enrollment. You can view the complete list of classes available on request here.  For more information regarding training on request, or to suggest that we offer a particular class in a location near you next year, please call 510-643-4393 or email courses@techtransfer.berkeley.edu. We want to hear from you!

Our online classes are taught by the same expert instructors, have the same quality content, and the same number of instructional hours as our classroom classes. However, our online classes are priced lower and are broken up into class sessions tha last just a few hours each day, spread over a few days in the same week or spread out over consecutive weeks.  Online training is ideal for individuals and agencies with limited funds for training or travel and those that need to minimize staff time out of the office. 

Our online classes are priced per location, not per person, so as in-person activity in the office resumes, you can have a room full of people attend for one low price. 

In addition, we offer group discounts for most of our online classes. Pay for one online class registration at full-price and receive up to five additional registrations from the same agency for the same class at half-price. For more information, and for groups larger than six, please contact the registrar at registrar@techtransfer.berkeley.edu(Note that group pricing is available on most online classes, but not all.  Exclusions include, but are not limited to: TE-29 California Traffic Engineering License Exam Review Course and AV-12 Airport Systems Planning and Design Course.)

TechTransfer is in a unique position to customize existing or develop new training courses that meet the unique and emerging needs of transportation professionals. We can draw from the immense intellectual wealth of our world-class Berkeley faculty and the top minds and experience from industry. For more information on specialized training options, please call 510-643-4393 or email courses@techtransfer.berkeley.edu. 

Continuing Education Units (or CEUs) are the nationally recognized standard for quantifying time spent in the classroom during professional development or training activities. Ten hours of face to face instruction equals 1 CEU. Thus, a class valued at 0.8 CEUs will have 8 hours of contact time (lunch breaks are not counted).

Any organization offering professional development activities may attach CEUs to their activity based on the above standard. At Tech Transfer we offer CEUs only for classes with curriculum that has been reviewed and approved by University academic faculty or staff. This ensures that your professional development is of the highest quality.

The CEU standard allows students to create a record of their non-credit professional development experiences from different sources. Some employers or licensing boards or other professional groups may ask members to submit transcripts of their CEU credited activities as proof of continuing commitment to staying up to date with changes in their profession.

TechTransfer offers CEUs to individuals who participate in courses distinctly marked as offering CEU credits. A transcript of your record of CEUs is available upon request.

The American Planning Association (APA) grants Certification Maintenance (CM) credits for several of TechTransfer's planning courses. All professional planners who are members of APA's professional institute, the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), are required to engage in mandatory continuing education. Continuing education is measured by CM credits. AICP members must earn a total of 32 CM credits (1 hour = 1 CM credit) within each two-year reporting period. TechTransfer classes can help AICP certified planners meet that goal. Upcoming courses offering AICP-CM credit can be found here.

To request a transcript of CEUs or CM credits earned after July 1, 2003, please contact the TechTransfer registrar at registrar@techtransfer.berkeley.edu. For CEUs earned before July 1, 2003, please call University of California Berkeley Extension at 510-642-4172.

No. TechTransfer is not a degree granting academic department at the University, nor is the Institute of Transportation Studies. ITS is a research unit, involving faculty, researchers, and students from across the University. For academic degrees, transportation concentrations are offered through the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning

If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about venue mobility access features in order to fully participate in this event, please contact TechTransfer at registrar@techtransfer.berkeley.edu with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days in advance of the event.