European rail alliance focuses on skills, people shortages

An industry project launched by the rail industry sector’s skills alliance (STAFFER) and sponsored by the European Commission is ending after almost four years. Euractiv spoke to project participants, who will present concrete policy recommendations for the next Commission in October.

The Commission has identified rail as a key tool for decarbonising transport. Its 2020 Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy targets a doubling of high-speed rail traffic by 2030 and a tripling by 2050. 

To deliver on these targets, the sector will need sufficient employees with the right skills.

“We are looking for the European Commission to kind of take the role of coordinator,” Richard Kayser, scientific assistant at the Institute for Railway Vehicles and Railway Technology at the Technical University of Dresden, told Euractiv.

“We have a lot of different national institutions and if we want to think on a European level, it’s very important to kind of bring together these national institutions and coordinate,” he added.

Tapping into Erasmus+

One of the priorities for STAFFER is increasing educational and training opportunities for students, apprentices, and employees working in and around the rail industry. 

STAFFER wants the Commission to make it easier for all rail-affiliated businesses, but especially small- and medium-sized enterprises, to access Erasmus+ funding. Erasmus+ is the bloc’s general programme to support education and training.

Erasmus+ funding would also enable cross-border employee exchanges between different railway companies, similar to the current arrangement between French national rail company SNCF and its German counterpart Deutsche Bahn (DB).

“If you want to have a European railway sector, then it’s very important that our apprentices know what’s going on in other countries,” Barbara Grau, SNCF’s head of European and international HR affairs, explained to Euractiv.

More language training and harmonised educational standards

STAFFER partners also advocate for increased language training for employees.

While automated trains theoretically diminish the need for employees to learn other languages, both Grau and Community of European Railways (CER) policy adviser Alexandre Boyer said it is important for operational employees to receive EU-funded assistance with language skills.

Boyer explained that automated digital communication between trains and the network will be the default way of working, but “if something goes wrong, that’s where communication is important”.

STAFFER stakeholders also called for students in secondary and tertiary schools to receive more science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education to prepare them for careers in rail.

“It’s kind of (a) Tinder match between what the industry would need in terms of skills … and what exactly universities give as an educational offer,” Ana Manuelito, public affairs manager at rail supply association UNIFE, told Euractiv.

For students in rail-specific degree programs, STAFFER called for standardisation of curricula so that students in all programmes are equally prepared to enter the workforce.

Boyer said, however, that CER would prefer universities to harmonise educational standards in such programmes without intervention at the European level.

Making rail careers more attractive for women and young people

A key element to ensure sufficient future rail workers will be making the industry more attractive for young people and women. Manuelito and Grau said women comprise only 20% of the rail-related workforce and that correcting this gender gap is a priority.

Grau also suggested that national governments work closely with companies and universities to guide pupils, especially women, to “where the jobs are.”

Looking ahead to October

STAFFER produced several findings over its three-and-a-half years, but concrete recommendations for the Commission remain scarce for now. The project’s final report will be presented to the Commission in October.

“I have to say that when it comes to the policy recommendations work, we are at the very beginning of the discussions internally,” Manuelito said of the STAFFER partners.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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