The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) Inland Rail project will see more than 1,700km of rail comprising of 13 individual projects between Brisbane and Melbourne transform the way freight is moved around the country.

ARTC recently identified a shortage of qualified workers locally for the Parkes to Narromine (P2N) section of the Inland Rail Project and other regional rail industry projects.

ARTC contractor and Indigenous Participation Advisor, Wally Walker, in conjunction with Sureway Employment and Training engaged CERT to provide training services to a group of jobseekers to improve their qualifications in rail and in turn, increase their employment opportunities for the project.

During the week long course, CERT National Rail Infrastructure Trainer, Jason Baxter, himself a former Parkes local resident, worked with 10 participants to complete ARTC NTSA (National Track Safety Awareness)  and TLI21315 – Certificate II in Rail Infrastructure core units program. During the same week, CERT Trainer, Craig Ramstadius ran the same course in Dubbo.

Completion of this training program has led to increased employment opportunities for local workers and community engagement. This training will also allow the students access to work in the rail industry environment in an entry level role.

Sureway was happy to announce an excellent employment rate with 9 out of the 10 students from the Parkes course already successfully employed after only a few weeks of completing the course. The feedback from them was that “The program was a huge success and I believe we can partner on further endeavours across the Sureway footprint”.

Following exposure to the rail environment, students can progress in either the Rail Infrastructure roles, such as Track Worker, Supervisor or Track Inspector or a Rail Operations role such as Shunter, Yard Driver or Train Driver.

CERT Training provides a wide range of responsive, flexible, innovative, and cost-effective training solutions and can deliver these training packages in any of their facilities located nationally or contact us to discuss training delivery on-site at your premise.