As part of the CEO Summit held on 6 July in Vienna, UIC Director General Jean-Pierre Loubinoux had the opportunity to explain to the CEOs present the actions that UIC is promoting, beyond the technical projects and standards, as part of its fundamental values.

One of them is training. This is because all members and all railways in Europe and around the world in both developing and developed countries have not replaced the previous generation when it comes to training and have not prepared the next generation for the basic principles of operations and maintenance to the new needs of mobility and the impact of digital technology.

At UIC within the training platform, to which 20 members belong, a study was organised on professional skills, managerial skills through workshops, training sessions and now e-learning sessions. In addition, some sessions have been held at training centres in Korea, Turkey and Africa or at UIC Paris headquarters.

However, this is not considered to be enough. The next step is to further attract or retain talent and this is why the talent programme, which fits in to UIC’s philosophy of “Share, Open, Connect” among members, there are a number of concrete objectives.

Among these objectives we want to go beyond our industry and open up our railway eco-system in order to link up with research centres through the International Railway Research Board (IRRB) with start-ups, through the Digital Platform, or universities through the Rail UniNet alliance comprising some 40 universities.

Seven actions are being developed: raise interest in rail, promote rail courses, organise rail training sessions, use young experts on projects, offer career opportunities and invite them to our awards to create visibility and, last but not least, harness external innovation.

This programme, specifically developed by UIC, will serve as a basis for a proposal developed during this CEO meeting to conduct a study in order to identify ways to cooperate with regard to a virtual European rail academy.