The Australasian Railway Association (ARA), together with Hanga-Aro-Rau in collaboration with sector stakeholders, recently published a report on the future skills and capabilities required for a strong, sustainable New Zealand rail workforce.
Like Australia, the New Zealand rail industry plays a critical role in the transport system, supporting economic growth, sustainability, and connectivity. However, and again just like Australia, the industry is facing significant workforce challenges, with skill shortages, a “retirement cliff”, and barriers to attracting new talent and retaining staff.
Given the rapid technological advancements underway, strategic workforce planning, investment in skills development and career progression, and enhanced sector collaboration will be critical to ensuring New Zealand has a sustainable pipeline of skilled workers to deliver infrastructure projects and meet future demand for services.
The report, Building New Zealand Rail Skills For The Future, was launched at the ARA’s RailNZ 25 conference held in Auckland on 29 May. Prepared by PwC, the report presents a comprehensive analysis of the challenges facing rail in New Zealand and makes a series of practical recommendations under key priority areas. This project builds upon a series of ARA reports into the rail skills and capabilities within Australia, including the 2022 ARA Building Australian Rail Skills for the Future report which provided actionable recommendations, based on research and sector feedback, to enhance workforce capacity and capability.
The ARA’s 2023 report, The Rail Workforce: An Analytical Overview, showed a 70,000 skills gap, and about 34 per cent of the rail workforce aged over 50 years and only four per cent under 25 years.
The challenges outlined in this latest New Zealand report include the lack of clear career pathways, limited education and training programs, and difficulties sourcing specialised skills (e.g. signalling engineering and traction line maintenance). It states the move towards digital signalling, automation, and predictive maintenance requires new skills in data analytics, cybersecurity, and digital engineering, presenting future challenges for rail operations.
The workforce development analysis paints a very similar story to that of Australia and, indeed, around the world.
The ARA’s General Manager – Workforce Development, Fiona Love, attended the UIC 7th World Congress on Rail Training, Talent & Development in Chengdu, China in April, where more than 30 countries were represented.
It was no surprise to hear that the challenges we face in training, and the wider human resources sector are very similar in every country. Trainers are becoming harder to find, and there is a strong sense of urgency about integrating technology assets and solutions into rail training.
As our railways move from being a largely mechanical industry to a digital, clean energy industry, required skills are changing rapidly, and education within the industry needs to keep pace to support a future workforce.
Skills shortages and an ageing workforce
As part of its recommendations, the report calls upon rail organisations and government stakeholders to explore the development of a sector-wide workforce plan that identifies the skill shortages and the plan for addressing skill gaps into the near and long term.
More than one in four of the rail workforce are likely to retire within the next 10 years, creating an urgent need for succession planning and recruitment strategies. Specialist skills, including signalling engineering, overhead traction, and digital rail systems, remain in high demand but are difficult to source locally.
Significant barriers noted in the report include limited opportunities for rail-specific tertiary education in New Zealand for rail engineering and operations, as well as limited pathways for career progression. Flexible working arrangements and diversity initiatives, particularly for women and Māori and Pacific Peoples professionals, are needed to improve workforce retention and inclusion.
The report also notes that given more than a quarter of employees are expected to retire within the next decade, the industry must address low public awareness, outdated perceptions, and competition from other industries that hinder recruitment.
Key recommendations
A set of actionable recommendations are proposed in three key areas to collectively develop a sector-wide workforce strategy alongside a nationally coordinated bipartisan infrastructure plan. The three key priority areas are:
1. Establish long-term foundations for workforce sustainability through infrastructure planning, procurement, and regulatory reform.
The report recommends the government review and update the New Zealand Rail Network Investment Programme and associated infrastructure programs to ensure long-term infrastructure investment certainty for rail, aligned with wider infrastructure needs of New Zealand. It also states national and local governments should review procurement frameworks and policies to strengthen and prioritise local workforce development requirements and review regulatory frameworks and policies to identify opportunities that enhance interoperability of rail infrastructure systems and reduce barriers to the adoption of new technologies.
2. Position rail as a modern, inclusive and attractive career sector through branding, visibility, and better workforce insights.
The ARA has a strong agenda addressing this issue, including diversity training for rail organisations, an annual Women in Rail Mentoring Program, scholarships and networking opportunities every year for women in rail and a new Champions of Change Rail Group with high-profile chief executive officers in the industry.
It recommends New Zealand rail organisations utilise the ARA’s Work in Rail platform to promote New Zealand rail careers and pathways; establish a consistent framework for collection of workforce demographics in collaboration with Stats NZ and promote the ARA’s Professional Certificate in Rail as a trans-Tasman pathway for foundational rail knowledge.
The new Professional Certificate in Rail is the first Australasian rail industry designed and recognised professional certificate. It combines the ARA’s five industry-leading courses with a live webinar and an optional site-visit. Learners can do the certificate online, at their own pace, with each of the five courses open for five weeks. It covers the technical, operational and safety aspects of rail systems, delving into rail operations, signalling, rolling stock and infrastructure, and industry issues such as automation, sustainability and innovation.
3. Build a future-ready rail workforce through planning, education partnerships, international collaboration, and mobility pathways.
Rail organisations and government stakeholders should explore the development of a sector-wide workforce plan that identifies the skill shortages and the plan for addressing skill gaps into the near and long term.
It also recommends alignment of priority rail skills classifications between New Zealand and Australia to support workforce mobility, skills recognition, and training consistency. The report recommends rail organisations consider implementing the ARA’s Rail Industry Worker (RIW) program in New Zealand to enhance skills portability and competency management.
The report recognises the potential for New Zealand to leverage and expand existing collaboration between the ARA and Australian universities to develop rail-specific modules for inclusion in degree and qualification courses in New Zealand.Those interviewed for the study suggested that collaborating with universities on rail-specialised courses would be useful in terms of cutting down time spent onboarding and training which limit opportunities for practical learning, especially given the smaller scale of rail projects in New Zealand. Establishing rail-specific university programs or professional certifications could help provide formal recognition of skills and strengthen workforce capabilities.
In Australia, the ARA has facilitated collaborations with Monash University (through the S2ARail Graduate Research Industry Partnerships), Deakin University (through micro-credentials in rail design, planning and maintenance), and the University of Tasmania (through a diploma in rail infrastructure) which the report noted provided strong examples for how to co-design rail-specific courses in New Zealand.
A unified effort
The long-term success of New Zealand’s rail industry will depend upon forward-thinking workforce planning, strategic investment, and strong collaboration across the industry. Tackling existing and emerging skills shortages will require a unified effort from government, industry leaders, and educational providers.
The recommendations in the report provide a platform for New Zealand to further develop a resilient, capable, and diverse workforce that supports a thriving and sustainable national rail network.
