Scoping the potential of skills recognition in the rail Industry

Background

The rail industry's desire for national consistency and partnership across the networks and the increasing difficulty in extracting individuals from workplaces to attend off-site training makes skill recognition processes an important consideration in building capacity in the workplace. However, while skills recognition offers attractive prospects for increasing the efficiency of training in the rail industry, there is also a need to determine the risks of and limitations in using such processes.

Objective

The aims of this scoping research are to determine the issues in skills recognition (Recognition of Prior Learning and Recognition of Current Competence) in participating rail organisations, to identify and examine how skills recognition practices are employed in these companies and how they might be enhanced.

Outcomes

An accurate assessment on the direction to be taken in further studies on skills recognition will be delivered.

Benefits

Moves in the direction of a more national, consolidated approach to skills recognition are likely to lead to more consistent practices and to save the rail industry time and money.