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Modernization of rail higher education in Europe – Final presentation of the work package “Industry Expectations and requirements” at the second partner meeting of the ASTONRail project in Žilina, Slovakia

(German version click)

On November 24th and 25th, 2021, the second partner meeting of the ASTONRail project in hybrid form took place in Žilina, Slovakia. In the ASTONRail project, the Technische Hochschule Wildau University of Applied Sciences is developing innovative methods, approaches and practices for rail higher education together with project partners from seven European countries. Among other things, the results of the completed work package “Industry expectations and requirements” were presented at the partner meeting.

On November 24 and 25, 2021, the second partner meeting of the ASTONRail project (Advanced approacheS and practices for rail training and education TO inNovate Rail study programmes & Improve rail higher education provision), was held in Žilina, Slovakia, in a hybrid form due to corona. The meeting was hosted by the Slovak project partner, the University of Žilina. The main objective of the ASTONRail project is to develop a portfolio (toolkit) of innovative methods, approaches and professional practices for rail skills development and as a result to improve and modernize the current rail higher education provision in Europe in order to support the recruitment of qualified employees for the rail industry.

At the partner meeting, the work statuses of the individual work packages were presented by the project partners. The final document could be presented for the completed work package “Industry expectations and Requirements”.

A key topic of this work package was a survey in the railway industry regarding their expectations towards the training of its employees. The survey was conducted in English in several European countries. The TH Wildau was responsible for carrying out the survey in Germany, for which the English survey was adapted to the target group of the railway industry in Germany and translated into German. The focus was on staff with an engineering background and who had completed their studies. The German survey received 41 complete responses that were included in the evaluation. Participants in the survey were engineering / consulting companies (39 %), passenger transport companies and manufacturers of rail vehicles or rail vehicle equipment (17 % each), other manufacturing companies in the railway industry (15 %), freight transport companies (12 %), administrative units (10 %), developers / manufacturers of control and safety technology in rail transport (7 %) and infrastructure operators as well as companies in the field of development / supply of information in rail transport (5 % each).

Selected main findings from the survey results are:

• When recruiting engineers, companies prefer people with a degree in transportation system engineering, transport engineering, mechanical engineering or industrial engineering.
• Practical experience of new employees is essential. Almost three quarters of the companies prefer that newly hired employees have experience from a similar position lasting more than one year and likewise almost three quarters of the companies that they have completed an internship in their company. Only 5 % of the companies stated that no previous knowledge is required for employment in their company
• Almost 25 % of the companies would like the graduates to have more practical knowledge and see this as an area in which the graduates should be better prepared during their studies.

The documentation of the results of the German survey with conclusions for higher education is available in German and English language in the rubric „weiterführende Informationen / Projektergebnisse“ at https://www.th-wildau.de/forschung-transfer/verkehrslogistik/projekte/astonrail/.

The ASTONRail project is funded by Erasmus+: Strategic Partnerships for higher education (KA203) of the European Union. At the TH Wildau, ASTONRail is run by the Research Group Transport Logistics in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Martin Lehnert and Prof. Dr. Christian Liebchen. The project ends in August 2023.

More information about ASTONRail: http://astonrail.eu/

The Research Group Transport Logistics at TH Wildau, headed by Prof. Dr. Jens Wollenweber, has been analysing and developing solutions in the field of logistics in conjunction with new technologies and testing their application in practice together with business partners since 2004. The focal points of the research include the topics of warehouse logistics with location analyses and process optimisation, city logistics, logistics for the forestry and timber industry, as well as analyses and application testing of new technologies in transport, such as electromobility.

More information about Research Group Transport Logistics: www.th-wildau.de/fgvlog

Specialist contact:

Anne-Katrin Osdoba (Forschungsgruppe Verkehrslogistik) /
Prof. Dr. Martin Lehnert (Verkehrssysteme)
TH Wildau
Hochschulring 1, 15745 Wildau
Tel.: +49 (0)3375 508 370 / -541
E-Mail: osdoba(at)th-wildau.de / martin.lehnert(at)th-wildau.de 

Contact communication TH Wildau:

Mike Lange / Mareike Rammelt
TH Wildau
Hochschulring 1, 15745 Wildau
Tel. +49 (0)3375 508 211 / -669
E-Mail: presse(at)th-wildau.de

Text: A.Osdoba; Photo: Pixabay