Rail - Digital Skills Analysis Project

3 February 2025 

Five Digital Occupational Profiles (DOPs) for the rail industry have been developed and were submitted to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) on 30 January 2025. The five DOPs are for the following occupations:

• Railway Track Worker
• Train Driver
• Train Controller
• Railway Track Plant Operator
• Track Protection Officer

The DOPs were developed by Working Groups of subject matter experts and were released for public consultation. 

A DOP defines the knowledge, skills and proficiency levels that a professional must possess to adequately perform the tasks that require digital capability in their occupation. The profile can serve to assess the potential of a professional and their suitability to the requirements of an occupation, to detect needs and manage training plans as well as to evaluate proficiency. Digital capability training and upskilling may be represented in Nationally recognised training, accredited courses, enterprise training, propriety training (e.g. Microsoft), at any point in the training sequence.

The DOPs will now be considered by DEWR for publishing.

Industry Skills Australia (ISA) has commenced the Rail Digital Skills Analysis Project in response to skills shortages impacting the industry's digital technology capability in rail signaling, safety critical communications, asset management, track maintenance, high-speed, autonomous, and remote systems.

These shortages are impacting how the rail industry manages technologies and is redefining crucial skills needed for both work and education, highlighting the necessity for digital literacy to participate effectively.

Five occupations will be analysed focusing on their digital skills. These occupations are: Railway Track Worker, Train Driver, Train Controller, Railway Track Plant Operator and Track Protection Officer.

The Australian Digital Capability Framework (ADCF) provides the mechanism to improve and identify generic digital capability requirements in different occupations. A tool developed from the ADCF called a Digital Occupational Profile (DOP) will assist in the project to define the knowledge, skills and proficiency levels that a professional must possess to adequately perform the tasks that require digital capability in their occupation.

The DOP allows industry to detail their skills, how they view and describe them, and at the same time it also allows the categorisation of those skills into the ADCF, assisting in identifying the skills in a common language for transferability, promoting their application across occupations.

Five Digital Occupational Profiles (DOP):

• Railway Track Worker
• Train Driver
• Train Controller
• Railway Track Plant Operator
• Track Protection Officer

To complete a DOP on the above occupations, we will undertake the following steps:

• EOI for subject matter experts for five working groups, linked to the occupations
• Working groups formed to complete five DOP via at least two workshops per occupation to analyse digital skills to establish the digital aspects of their professional tasks and to describe the specific content of the digital capabilities
• Public consultation completed of the DOP
• Review feedback from public consultation with working groups

The DOP can be used by industry to assist in their development for the workforce and digital skills needed.

The five Digital Occupational Profiles are due to be submitted to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations by 30 January 2025.

Expressions of Interest closed on Tuesday, 23 July 2024

Draft Digital Occupational Profiles for the following roles have been developed by Working Groups of subject matter experts and Industry Skills Australia would like your feedback:

•    Railway Track Worker
•    Train Driver
•    Train Controller 
•    Railway Track Plant Operator 
•    Track Protection Officer

These profiles define the necessary knowledge, skills, and proficiency levels for digital tasks in these roles, utilising the Australian Digital Capability Framework (ADCF).

26 September 2024

Public Consultation commenced on Thursday, 26 September and closed on Monday, 28 October 2024.