<span class="" id="parent-fieldname-description"> Rail Skills Australasia (RSA) in partnership with leading apprenticeship organisation, BUSY At Work has launched a new state-wide apprenticeship program designed to help job seekers transition into a career with the rail industry and tackle the industryâs skills and personnel shortages. </span> <p>Launched in Brisbane last week, the <em>Apprentices On Track</em> program will help employers manage and mentor their apprentices, increasing the prospects for employees to complete their training and move through to fill looming skills gaps in the rail industry.</p><p>The program will also ease the red tape and regulatory pressure on rail employers, allowing them to focus on their core business.</p><p>RSA CEO Paul Daly said <em>Apprentices On Track </em>will help to ensure the rail industry has access to a supply of properly trained people who have a clear understanding of what to expect.</p><p>“Apprentices are often young school leavers who have very little to no knowledge of what the rail industry could hold for them,” Daly said.</p><p>“The <em>Apprentices On Track </em>program aims to provide advice and mentoring throughout the apprenticeship process, as well as facilitate communication and ongoing mentoring of apprentice’s training, simplifying the apprenticeship process by half.”</p><p>BUSY At Work CEO Paul Miles said the program will ensure the rail industry has a workforce skilled in the trades required when the need to fill these jobs arises.</p><p>“With new major construction projects coming online within the next five years, it will become crucial for rail to have highly skilled and properly trained workers to meet growing workforce demands,” he said.</p><p>The <em>Apprentices On Track</em> program was launched by the Queensland assistant minister for technical and further education, Saxon Rice, who said it is an example of how training could be tailored to meet the needs of both employers and workers in a specific industry.</p><p>“In Queensland the government is currently restructuring the VET sector to ensure it is responsive to the needs of the state’s economy and delivers graduates with a real-world understanding of their chosen industry,” Rice said.</p><p>“It’s great to see industry and companies in the VET sector working together to help achieve this goal, particularly in an area of our economy as critical to our overall prosperity as the rail industry is.”</p><p>For more information on <em>Apprentices On Track</em> program visit <a href="http://www.rsa.org.au"><strong>www.rsa.org.au</strong></a> or <a href="http://www.busyatwork.com.au"><strong>www.busyatwork.com.au</strong></a></p>
