DEVELOPING SKILLS FOR QUEENSLAND RAIL

Queensland Rail recognised the need to update staff skills across their organisation. An initial skills audit identified three key areas that required improvement – contract administration, communication and project management. 

Contract administration skills were developed by introducing an outside consultant into the business on a weekly basis over 11 weeks. The communication gap was covered through a series of in-house training sessions on running meetings, correspondence, numeracy and literacy skills.

When it came to developing the right project management skills, Queensland Rail looked at a number of training organisations. According to John McDonald, Manager – Building Projects for Queensland Rail, “We approached five or six training providers who were happy to recognise the existing skills of our workers, which were quite extensive, but that wasn’t quite what we were after. We needed a program that could be customised to our needs, utilising our existing templates and systems. UNE Partnerships was the only RTO that would provide us with that service”.

The first step for UNE Partnerships was to undertake a familiarisation with Queensland Rail to better understand their requirements, and to find out how delivery of the program would best fit within their workplace.  According to John McDonald, “by adjusting the delivery mode and course material to our environment, the training UNE Partnerships could deliver to our staff was directly embedded into the workplace.”

Training was delivered through 10 tutorials over a 12-month period, plus four additional sessions with internal and external guest speakers.  Whilst participants were still expected to complete some of the assessments in their own time, discussion during the tutorials addressed many of the challenges or questions that arose. The tutorial sessions introduced them to the nine functions of Project Management, and the specific management of these functions through the life cycle of a project.  Queensland Rail’s own methodologies were incorporated to ensure that participants learned how to apply a consistent approach. 

Queensland Rail is keen to maintain the project management skills their employees have developed and will continue to undertake a skills upgrade every 6 months through UNE Partnerships.  This will ensure that the right systems are maintained and that any new issues or concerns can be discussed across the group.
PHOTO – Graduation of the group February 2009.