Young and not so young come together to discuss the future of rail workforce
05 March 2017
ARA: Today(16/03/2017), the
rail
industry, both young and not so young came together at the Young Rail
Professionals Forum ‘Harnessing the workforce for the future’ to discuss
and recognise the value, importance and qualities of young professionals
in the rail sector.
The panel discussion was led by facilitator, Camille McGregor, Director
of Client Strategy at
Aurecon with panellists Tim Reardon, Secretary of
Transport for NSW, Nicole Waterman, Technical Director at
Laing
O’Rourke, Anna Squire, NSW and ACT Infrastructure Leader at
Arup and
Matthew Aberline, Senior Project Manager and Chartered Civil Engineer at
Aurecon.
Danny Broad, Chief Executive Officer of the Australasian Railway
Association (ARA) said it was a great opportunity for the rail industry
to come together to discuss the future of our workforce.
“Rail is entering an exciting period as a result of unprecedented
investment and expansion. This transformation, combined with an aging
rail workforce provides the rail industry with a unique opportunity to
embrace change and improve diversity in our rail workforce,” said Mr
Broad.
“It is for this reason we meet today – so young and not so young can
come together to share their knowledge and identify the opportunities
and barriers to success, as well as identifying the route required to
harnessing the workforce of the future.
“The forum has identified some important issues, including the value of
age and gender diversity in the workforce, what the job and
organisational aspects are that attract and retain young professionals,
what the value is of new skills versus experience and the importance of
future technologies and disruptive thinking.
“It is important that as an industry we are on track to meet the needs
of this current transformation we are seeing in the rail industry before
we are faced with a skills shortage in the coming years when demand
outweighs supply.
“Our industry needs a workforce that represents the customer - We know
all too well that young people are users of our trains. As an industry
we need to appeal to the people we transport and today’s forum is a step
in the right direction of discussing the change that needs to come,”
concluded Mr Broad.
--ENDS--
Source: Australasian Railway Association (ARA) - www.ara.net.au
Contact: Berna Doksatli | +61 439 555 242
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