Last week, the ARA Workforce Development team met with executives from the Office of National Rail Safety Regulation (ONRSR), at the invitation of Chief Operating Officer Peter Doggett.  

Ensuring the accredited courses that ARA is building for the rail industry meets the rail regulator’s expectations is central to improved standardisation of national units of competence and courses. The ONRSR has been reviewing ARA’s Safely Access the Rail Corridor (SARC) course which has been built with the support of three heavy haul companies in the Pilbara.  

It was a great opportunity to share the work that the ARA has been doing to build competence in rail such as through the launch of the ARA Professional Certificate in Rail as well as working with universities to build undergraduate rail electives in engineering degrees and short courses and micro-credentials. 

For the ARA team, it was helpful to hear from ONRSR’s leaders about areas where they see a skills and capability gap as a result of their audit and engagement work with industry. The ARA Workforce Development Committee will engage across all members in 2025 with a new training needs analysis questionnaire to ensure the work in 2025 continues to fully reflect the needs of our industry to build critical rail capability.