TRAINING AND SKILLS
Training matters
Adam Hewitt reports from NSARE’s ‘Training Matters’ conference in Derby, where the results of the RTAS inspections of the industry’s training providers and assessors were made public for the fi rst time.
N
SARE revealed the Baseline Inspection results of the Railway Training and
Assessment Accreditation Scheme (RTAS) at their Training Matters Conference, held at Pride Park in Derby on 27th-28th September.
To a packed audience of representatives from employers, government, training providers, FE colleges and professional bodies, NSARE chief executive, Gil Howarth explained that whilst there is some excellent training provision, there is still a need to raise standards, foster a culture of continuous improvement and eliminate rogue providers. He also highlighted the need for an overarching strategic direction of the training provision if the industry is to develop the workforce of the future to meet the skills challenges.
He then went on to argue that the introduction
A ‘fair, useful and robust’ inspection process
Bridgeway Consulting’s managing director Pino De Rosa told RTM after collecting the award: “It’s the culmination of a lot of work over a lot of years by all the stakeholders within
Bridgeway. The achievement was
underpinned by every member of staff, and I’m very proud.
“The inspection process was very thorough. It seemed fair: it was a challenge, because it was different, and we had to work hard on understanding what would be required from us. We had to look at ourselves and how
“We had a helpful inspector, clearly we weren’t absolutely sure what to expect. We’d been through the compliance procedure before, so this was different. The inspector spent a lot of time looking at our educational provision, and what value we’re adding to the…learner’s education. I think that’s the right way to be going.”
of the new accreditation and inspection framework, which has shifted practices away from a culture of compliance to one of continual improvement, is only the fi rst step: “We need to eliminate outdated training practices where they exist and up-skill those trainers who wish to play their part, but who do not have the qualifi cations to train at the highest level.”
Janet Tomlinson and David Collard from Tribal Education Ltd, then spoke on behalf of the inspectors praising the fact that trainers in the rail sector were knowledgeable, enthusiastic and very safety conscious.
However they identifi ed several areas that needed addressing, including the fact that delivery concentrated mainly on knowledge transfer, rather than the development of a deeper understanding of the risks involved in
we presented information, and the biggest challenge was fi nding the evidence we knew existed in the business and presenting it.”
Craig King of TQ Catalis told RTM: “We can tell our clients now we’ve been independently assessed and that our quality is very high.
railway engineering activities.
Similarly, they identifi ed that development of behaviours was not a key focus of the training and support for individuals, to help develop their literacy, numeracy and communication skills, was not a priority.
Other concerns that were raised at the conference related to the lack of evidence for widespread development for trainers, or rigorous Continuing Professional Development (CPD), with sharing of best practice between trainers only spasmodic.
An area of concern is the low qualifi cations, in general, of the trainers within the sector – signifi cantly lower than would be expected within an engineering sector.
Lawrence Dobie of Vital told us: “The inspection process was very fair, useful and robust.
“It challenged the business, in terms of the information asked for and questions, but we found it very useful and will use it as our baseline to improve our business and help us grow.”
He added: “We’ve supported NSARE since day one, we’ve worked very closely with Gil and his team to drive training provision forward, to promote the rail industry as a career of choice for young people, and we’ll continue to do that.”
26 | rail technology magazine Oct/Nov 12
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