The EU ERASMUS+ REPAIR project, coordinated by UIC, held one of its dissemination events on 14 June 2023 at the kind invitation of the ADIF Traffic Training Centre in Madrid, Spain.
The partners of the REPAIR project come from five companies and organisations: ADIF, the Spanish Railway Infrastructure Manager (Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias); Fachhochschule St Poelten Gmbh; Institut für partizipative Sozialforschung; Reconnaître - Open Recognition Alliance; and Slovenske Železnice, and have participated actively in the organisation of this event. The REPAIR partners invited ADIF training executives, trainers and students currently receiving training in the centre to attend the event.
The REPAIR (Recognising Emerging Practices Anticipating Industry Renewal) Framework is aimed at translating the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to support the rail sector. It has designed a digital method called “badges” to make invisible skills and competences visible, which will eventually increase railway sustainability.
Vicente Manclus Tur, Head of the Training Department at ADIF, welcomed everyone and opened the meeting. He introduced ADIF’s dedication to the development of workforce and the UN SDG 2023 agenda. Manclus Tur addressed the challenge that the ADIF Traffic Training Centre is facing as it needs to replace its workforce, thus underlining the importance of ADIF’s participation in the UIC Rail Sustainable index (RSi) and the REPAIR project.
Luis Casado Presa, International Affaire at ADIF, presented ADIF’s activities at the international level. He introduced the involvement of ADIF in UIC’s global actions and projects.
Meryem Belhaj-Clot, Deputy HR Director and Head of HR Development at UIC, presented UIC’s international activities and projects. She also introduced the Talent and Expertise Development programme at UIC and the importance of skills recognition. She encouraged the partners to join and actively participate in the activities of the platform.
Belhaj-Clot also took this occasion to inform the audience about the launch of the UIC Rail Academy, a new UIC service providing telecom training (for example, FRMCS training, which would be held online in July and in-person in September).
Yuke Li, UIC Advisor HR Development and International Training, pointed out the challenge that the REPAIR project is facing: how to translate the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) into renewed professional practices? She highlighted how REPAIR, driven by the need for a sustainable world and the necessity of constant learning, used badges to recognise and share the practices related to SDGs to integrate them into work practices.
Isabelle de Keyzer, UIC Senior Advisor Environment and Sustainability, introduced the UIC Rail Sustainability index (RSi) which provides UIC members with a unique rating system and a supportive digital platform based on the UN SDGs to assess the performance of each railway company against a selection of KPIs. Used by professionals, specialists and the organisations in which they work, the RSi thus recognises sustainability achievements at corporate level by measuring the railway industry’s commitment to fighting climate change and improving society.
Govedič Tjaša, representing the Slovenian Railway Training Centre, presented an overview of the training centre and shared their experiences in engaging the workforce with the REPAIR badge ecosystem. She referred to the success of the SDG Aware workshop, qualitative interviews with trainers and efforts to include SDGs in the curricula and training programmes made by the SZ training centre.
Carlos García from the ADIF Training Centre introduced ADIF’s commitment to training and its collaboration with the REPAIR project. He shared their experience of REPAIR digital badges with trainers in ADIF which allowed the REPAIR partners to explore the feasibility and potential for bottom-up construction of competency frameworks. He also expressed his gratitude for all REPAIR partners, thanks to whom ADIF was able to exploit the badge recognition of practices beyond their community, with the support of UIC and UIC’s network of members.
Maria Isabel Gomez, Deputy Director Strategic Planning, highlighted ADIF’s dedication to sustainable development. She presented ADIF’s participation in RSi and their involvement in the UN Agenda 2030.
Maria Angerer and Alfons Bauernfeind, REPAIR project partners and researchers and sociologists at IPS, presented their qualitative and quantitative data analyses using the results of the questionnaires and personnel interviews conducted as part of the REPAIR framework. Their results showed that there is a need to raise railway workers’ awareness of SDGs. The interviews further demonstrated the effect badges have on making skills and competences more visible. The outcomes indicate that the badges represent a constructive approach which can support railway industry sustainability. The REPAIR partners then invited the audience to participate in the World Café tables, facilitated respectively by María Angerer and Carlos García, where ADIF training executives and trainers had real-time experience in claiming badges and interacting with their peers. Their feedback and ideas for new badges were very helpful.
The meeting was closed by a plenary session involving ADIF OEP students and including a very informative presentation of the UN SDGs and the REPAIR project. Dozens of SDG badges were claimed and the students had fruitful discussions with the REPAIR partners.
The REPAIR project partners will continue working on promoting the use of badges to make invisible competencies visible in order to increase railway sustainability. Serge Ravet, project partner from Reconnaître, will continue to work on the optimisation of the badge claiming system. It is believed that railway sustainability will flourish through the collective work of every individual.
