The UIC Talent and Expertise Development Platform, organised by SJSC “Latvijas dzelzceļš”, Latvian Railways (LDz), in cooperation with UIC, is being held in Riga, Latvia from 29 – 30 October 2018.
The first day, 29 October, was an international conference organised for the first time addressing the topic “How to attract new staff in a situation of growing competition and opening-up markets” and was held at Riga Technical University. It brought together 200 representatives of the railway industry from 25 countries from Asia, Europe and Africa.
The second day, 30 October, dedicated to the Talent & Expertise Development work programme and activities, is being held at LDz headquarters.
The UIC Talent Project deals with the need of the rail sector to better attract and retain the best talents in the job market.
In view of the several human resources challenges facing the railway industry (demographic challenge and skills shortage, automation of jobs, technological changes, artificial intelligence and robotics impacting skills, loss of corporate knowledge, lack of attractiveness, diversity and generational changes ,…), UIC believes that it has an important role to play by engaging at the international level an active dialogue and support staff to make a career in the railways and retaining them.
At the core of the project is the development of a powerful international network of railway talents aiming to prepare a new generation of railway talents working on domestic and international challenges, with a deep understanding of business approaches, multi-language and intercultural skills, well-known and recognised by the international railway community.
- Mrs Džineta Innusa, Ministry of Transport Deputy State Secretary, gave her welcome speech: “I am honoured to be here and to represent the Minister. It brings many participants from Europe and other countries. New professionals are trained.
- For companies, the main issues are:
- Companies’ ability to attract talents
- Companies’ ability to retain talents
- Companies’ ability to motivate talents
- For employee knowledges, State join companies pay more attention to education. To succeed, we need relentless work. Talent needs time to be transformed into mastery. The world is changing more quickly and innovation has a leading role."
Mr Edvīns Bērziņš, LDz President expressed his honour to open this international conference.
He highlighted: “Influenced by new technologies and automation, the business world is currently changing at a rapid pace, and the railway sector is not excluded. New requirements for cross-border cooperation have appeared in everyday work, as well as the ability to use current communication technologies and large data volumes. Therefore, talent management and development of skills is at the basis of advance management of human resources.
By using the new technologies, I just mentioned, I have the opportunity to welcome participants and guests of the conference. Today you will discuss the needs of the industry in the labour market, possibilities of various age groups and development of individual careers in a work environment. On behalf of “Latvijas dzelzceļš” I express my heartfelt gratitude to the Director General of UIC, Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, for an opportunity to host a conference jointly in Latvia on such a relevant topic. I would also like to thank the lecturers of the conference who have covered a long distance to come to Latvia, teaching staff of the higher education institutions and professionals of the industry who will surely provide valuable advice and recommendations for attraction of the new talents.
The main force of each company is its personnel. Even with the best equipment, systems and processes implemented in the company, it needs people that not only ensure everyday operation but are also able to see opportunities for creation and development of new goods and services in order to maintain the competitiveness of the company in future as well. The personnel must be the main asset of each company, and search, testing and hiring of employees should be one of the main duties of a company because it will be difficult to achieve the company’s objectives without talented people.”
Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General, gave an introduction of the UIC Talent Project.
Besides the general objective of the project to attract, retain and benefit from the brightest talents, the project was aiming at:
Guiding and connecting talents within and beyond the railway industry
Helping Rail People and Companies Learn, Transmit and Develop
Promoting Innovation and Careers in the Railway Sector
He mentioned an important initiative within the frame of the project – the setting up of Rail Uni Net (Network of Railway Universities) currently evolving into a more powerful Board TrainRail including education and training organisations as well as industry partners. TrainRail was officially launched during the meeting of the Talent Expertise Platform Day on 30 October.
He also added: “Among the missions of UIC, the transmission of knowledge is one of our fundamental values. In our 21st century our railway sector must turn to the outside world and attract the new generation to promote its values for society, and for socio economic development.
They will bridge our traditions of the past with their vision of the future, making railways a backbone of a Sustainable Integrated Connected International chain of mobility”.
The second part of the International Conference gave the opportunity to railway speakers to discuss about attracting new staff now and in the future from Italy, Russia, Belarus and Latvia.
