In this section the ASTONRail handbook provides an easy guidance for students and graduates about what the needs of the railway industry are regarding the demanded skills of future employees, investigated in the ASTONRail project, and where rail job offers can be found.

The ASTONRail project analysed the needs of the railway industry by conducting a survey in the railway industry regarding the expectations towards the training of its employees (within WG2) and additionally by carrying out a job market offers analysis.

For the survey in the railway industry regarding the expectations towards the training of its employees a questionnaire was developed and tested within a pre survey in several European countries. The results of the pre survey were taken into account for the development of the final questionnaire. The pre survey in Germany showed the need of customizing the questionnaire to the target group in Germany and likewise the translation into German. The aim was to ensure the compatibility of both surveys, however not all questions could be kept congruent. The two surveys were carried out online, the English version in several European countries and the German version in Germany.

The EU-wide survey had 54 participants. When rail companies hire new employees the preferred kind of education is:

• Rail transport/Railway engineering (35 % of the participants), followed by
• Vehicle engineering (22 %) and
• Transport system engineering (21 %).

The required experience of graduates differs significantly between the European and the German survey results. The following experience of graduates is expected (EU-wide survey):

• Many participating companies of the EU-wide survey accept recent graduates without previous practical experience.
• 17 % of the participants answered that they always accept recent graduates without previous practical experience and 54 % answered frequently.
• 29 % of the participants answered rarely.
• If the rail companies require previous practical experiences, they most often require previous practical experiences in a similar position for more than 1 year.

The survey in Germany had 41 participants. When recruiting engineers, the participants prefer a degree in:

• Transportation system engineering/Transport engineering (68 % of the participants)
• Mechanical engineering (44 %)
• Industrial engineering (37 %)

The following experience of graduates is expected:

• 73 % of the participants prefer that newly hired employees have experience from a similar position lasting more than 1 year
• 71 % prefer that they have completed an internship in their company
• 59 % each prefer a completed internship in another company as well as experience from a similar position lasting up to 1 year and
• Only 5 % of the participants answered that no previous knowledge is required for employment in their company

More information about both surveys is available here.

In the two surveys in the railway industry the participants were asked to state skills future employees are supposed to have. In addition a job market offers analysis was carried out in several countries to analyse what kind of skills employees should have. Out of it the top five most demanded skill groups that are needed in the railway industry were elaborated for each subset of the analysis (European survey separated into the Rail Careers Matrix levels strategic, tactical, operational and for the German survey).

Table 1: Top five most demanded skill groups:

More information about the Working Group 3 in which the most demanded skill groups were elaborated is presented here.

An overview about job offer portals and career portals of employers in the railway industry in the project partner countries is given here.