The project in its current format is being implemented since 2019. The Office of Rail Transport addressed it to two groups - employees of different rail companies and inspectors of the Office of Rail Transport.
Participation in the training courses not only provides participants with the opportunity to expand their knowledge and competences, but is also an opportunity to exchange experiences. Participation in all forms of education offered by the Rail Safety Academy is free of charge.
Improving the knowledge of railway personnel is one of the measures to rise the safety level of the rail system in Poland. The Rail Safety Academy allows experts from the Office of Rail Transport to share their knowledge with the market. It is also an excellent programme for improving the knowledge of our own inspectors. I am convinced that thanks to such projects we can talk about improving the level of rail safety every year. The success of the first edition of the Academy allows us to plan the next one. Soon we will present the Rail Safety Academy in a new version, enriched with many innovative elements – said Ignacy Góra, President of the Office of Rail Transport.
The Academy is primarily about the modern forms of knowledge sharing. We have created a training platform and an application for mobile devices. This enabled participants to sign up for training courses and participate in them online. In doing so, they were also given access to scripts, presentations and training materials. Knowledge on the rail safety thus became easily accessible.
To date, 81 training courses have been organised for railway employees. More than 8,000 people have participated in them. The training courses were lectures or workshops. They were held both online and on site. In the latter formula meetings were held in 7 cities: Warsaw, Gdańsk, Kraków, Poznań, Lublin, Katowice and Wrocław.
The workshops were most attended by representatives of railway commissions investigating the causes of accidents. SMS and MMS auditors were also trained. Training topics also included rail passengers' rights and planned legislative changes.
The professional development of rail employees is one of the priorities of the Office of Rail Transport. This is why the companies for which professional development of their staff is particularly important were honoured. In the "Most active company" category, POLREGIO and PKP CARGO were distinguished. The winner's statuette went to PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A. It was these entities that delegated the largest number of employees to training courses.
In the "Most active participant" category, Hubert Grobelny from POZBRUK sp. z o.o., sp. jawna took the podium. He received the award for participating in the highest number of training courses. Distinctions were given to Jacek Jawor from PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A. and Joanna Bochniak from NKN Usługi Kolejowe sp. z o.o.
The Office of Rail Transport also awarded prizes in the “Most active inspector” category. Michał Krzywda from our Poznań Regional Office, Bogdan Netkowski from Gdańsk Regional Office and Emil Ratajczak from Poznań Regional Office were awarded for participating in the highest number of training courses.
In the category "Most active Regional Office", the winner was Lublin. Employees of Lublin Regional Office were the most frequent participants in training. Distinctions were won by Katowice and Kraków Regional Offices.
A special award was given to Piotr Szczepaniak, Director of the Planning and Supervision Department at the Office of Rail Transport. He conducted training courses on a wide range of topics, both for the rail market and for internal participants. He also trained the largest number of people. He participated in preparation of the Inspector Development Programme and the Inspector Starter Programme, which are among the key documents in the Academy project.
The Rail Safety Academy prepared the Inspector Development Programme and the Inspector Starter Programme. Participation in the development sessions allowed the inspectors' aptitudes to be explored. Each of them had an individual competence development path for the duration of the project. The training materials were made available not only to the Office of Rail Transport employees, but also to rail companies in the form of e-books.
The aim of the Rail Safety Academy is to create a safe, competitive and efficiently functioning rail system by levelling the level of knowledge and competence of rail sector professionals. The Academy is also a platform for exchange of good practice.
The project is co-financed by the European Union from the Cohesion Fund under the Operational Programme Infrastructure and Environment 2014-2020. The value of the Rail Safety Academy project is PLN 4 300 000,00
