The autumn meeting of the UIC Talent & Expertise Development Platform (TEDP) which took place at the kind invitation of FS, was held in Rome on 26 and 27 October 2017 and brought together training executives/representatives from 16 different rail training centres/institutions.

As for all TEDP meetings, one part of the meeting was dedicated to topical presentations and workshops, the other part to the update on the latest developments of the Expertise Development unit/platform, including progress of work for the activities at the focus of the Expertise Development Platform for the next three years.

The first part dedicated to topical presentations and workshops started on the first day morning with presentations of FS group professional training and development activity.

RFI presented the EU benchmark they conducted in the area of training, benchmark which resulted in the recent opening of a new Training Academy.
Italferr demonstrated how they changed the culture of safety and health within the company playing “comedia dell ’arte”.

FS eventually presented the strategy and different activities of the group towards young talents.

Two workshops were organised in the afternoon on two EC financed projects: “Trainer development” project and “skilful” project.

The purpose of the trainer workshop was to disseminate the final results of the project. The Trainer project which was set up after the first WCRT in 2011 is ending its activities after a three-year project with financial support from EC funds (Erasmus plus). The purpose of the project was to cooperate for the group “signalling engineering" trainers on new approaches in technology (technical and in learning), exchange of expertise and sharing ‘good practices’, as well as the delivery of tangible products (such as a European behavioural competence framework for trainers in the rail infrastructure…). The coordinator demonstrated that the project had positive financial, commercial, technical as well as didactical impact.

The TEDP will examine the possibility to apply the process and lessons learnt in another rail training.

The aim of the skilful workshop was to present the audience with the first results of the project and check their pertinence vis-à-vis the railway sector. The project is targeting future competences in all transport modes and UIC is one partner representing the rail sector out of 25 partners. http://skillfulproject.eu/

The second day, which was hosted at la Sapienza university, was the opportunity to get acquainted with the specific educational programmes dedicated to transportation https://web.uniroma1.it/cdaingtrasporti/

The day then continued with information and reporting about the latest developments in the UIC in general and within the framework of the Talent & Expertise Development Platform.

• A new organisation chart was presented to the group, reflecting the latest developments which occurred in the activity (talent project’s developments, cooperation with academia, on-line courses...).

• “GRTMS training”. The purpose of the project is to develop a GRTMS basic on-line training course (targeted at young professionals, students, apprentices..) for all functional areas of the European railways, which should ensure standardisation of knowledge. First modules should be available on-line mid-2018.

• Railway Talent Project is continuing its activities, namely with the release of a revamped website in November 2017, the organisation of third networking & collaborative event in Moscow (with a focus on intermodality and digitalisation) on 7 and 8 December in the frame of the Transport Week (http://events.uic.org/3rd-talent-collaborative-and-networking-event), the start of a four week RAM on-line course on 15 January 2018.

• Presentation of a new topic dedicated to “New Learning Concepts” was delivered and a small group volunteered to start a project in this area.

• Report was made on the fourth World Congress on Rail Training which was organised from 5 – 7 April 2017 at DB Akademie, Berlin/Potsdam currently in partnership with DB Training, Learning and Consulting, SNCF and FS.

The next congress will take place in spring 2019 and candidates interested in hosting it still have the possibility to apply until 20 November 2017.

The last session of the meeting was dedicated to a round table dedicated to the “current situation at training centres”: each delegate gives an update of the latest developments and challenges facing their activity.

The next meeting of the Expertise Development Platform is scheduled to be held in spring 2018. More information will be provided at a later stage.