Data analysis of current and emerging skills development and training schemes in the rail transport sector

Rail transport is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. High speed rail lines and networks have been built in many countries. New technologies and innovative concepts have been studied and implemented to modernise the entire rail sector. Currently there is an imminent need for building and maintaining a skilled rail workforce that will keep the industry growing sustainably. A skilled rail workforce is built and maintained through robust training schemes, programmes and curses. The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of existing training schemes, programmes and courses for rail and to identify potential gaps in the availability of training schemes and programmes when looking at job categories in the entire rail sector across different sample countries, primarily from Europe. The methodology employed includes data collection for existing training schemes for job categories in various management levels using excel spreadsheets followed by statistical analyses. The findings suggest that internships and other schemes for skills development for job categories in the operational management level were the least provided training schemes overall. In contrast, skills development for job categories in the strategic and tactical management levels in the rail sector has more university-based and academic schemes available. Further work in this new research subject is needed to evaluate the quality of the courses provided and the courses provided in countries with lower economies.