Reimagining the workforce: the Victorian rolling stock context: literature review

The purpose of this literature review is to provide the current industry context and outline a theoretical basis to support the research project 'Reimagining the workforce: building smart, sustainable, safe public transport'. This project is funded by the Victorian Department of Transport and the Rail Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (RMCRC). The project aims to understand the current needs associated with the future public transport rolling stock workforce in Victoria, and in particular, the strengths, opportunities and challenges presented in overcoming the projected skills and capability crisis it currently faces and the need for innovation. It examines the different organisations who manufacture, maintain and operate rolling stock, and the influences that shape these, such as the procurement process, culture and the community. The review provides an overview of the system in which both the issues outlined above exist in the Victorian public transport workforce. The aim of the review is to present a holistic overview of the local context, but it also draws on international literature to understand the deeper underlying issues.

'Section 1: Introduction' by Roger Jones, Celeste Young and Kumi Heenetigala outlines the current industry composition and workforce within public transport with a focus on the Victorian context. 'Section 2: Building innovative and inclusive organisational cultures' by Celeste Young with contributions from Neil Parry reviews the current literature relevant to organisational culture, innovation, and diversity and inclusion in the public transport sector workforce context. It examines the current status of the above issues and also examines the opportunities, barriers and complexities related to both retention and attraction of both the current and future workforce. Its focus is the Victorian and Australian context, but it touches on international literature in order to identify relevant studies that provide insight into the workforce. 'Section 3: The community context' by Daniel Ooi summarises the existing body of work related to community perception of careers in rolling stock. This includes the extent to which the Australian and international community view careers in rolling stock as attractive, as well as the extent to which demographic changes among young job-seekers and changes in social and cultural values in relation to work, have changed the landscape for securing the future workforce in rolling stock. It also addresses the current understanding of the changing landscape of gender and cultural diversity of contemporary Australia in terms of career attraction, and ways in which understanding this might contribute to securing the future workforce in rolling stock. 'Section 4: Skills gaps and training in the rail industry' by Kumi Heenetigala focuses on skill shortage, the training requirements of the current and future workforce and availability of training to meet this shortage in Australia. The Australian rail industry is currently undergoing significant expansion and the increase in the number of large-scale projects requires expansion in the workforce in the rail industry. This requires identifying the skill shortage and training to meet the current and future needs of the rail workforce. 'Section 5: The policy context' by Celeste Young, Roger Jones and Neil Parry covers the history of governance in Victoria, which has shaped the current industry structure. International trade policy and how it affects the public procurement of rolling stock is also examined. 'Section 6: The economic context' by Roger Jones and Sidney Lung discusses the economics of procurement, first at the international scale, and then how it affects Victoria, addressing the procurement policies described in Section 1. The economic outlook internationally and in Victoria is then discussed. Finally, the economics of workforce and training issues is discussed with the aim of identifying the factors that lead to a sustainable workforce and industry.

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