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Australia is experiencing significant workforce shortages across many sectors, including rail — a cornerstone of national transport and infrastructure. Contributing factors include limited skilled migration, an ageing workforce, and low public awareness of the diverse careers available in rail. Without strong talent attraction and development pathways, the industry faces growing challenges in delivering major projects, supporting supply chains and maintaining long-term productivity.
This project responds to these challenges by creating a new national qualification: Certificate II in Rail Fundamentals (Pre‑Vocational). The qualification will be informed by materials from the Victorian-accredited 22681VIC Certificate II in Rail Fundamentals and selected Units of Competency from the TLI Transport and Logistics Training Package. This ensures alignment with industry needs and provides students and others with the foundational skills required for entry-level rail roles.
What This Means for Industry
A nationally recognised Certificate II in Rail Fundamentals will strengthen the rail talent pipeline across Australia.
Students will be able to develop essential rail skills while completing secondary school, improving their career readiness and increasing their awareness of opportunities within the sector. The qualification will also help build stronger partnerships between schools, training providers and employers, supporting smoother transitions into employment.
This project aims to:
- Provide qualification suitable for pre-vocational and school based training
- Support industry-wide attraction and retention strategies
This project will:
- Develop a national Certificate II in Rail Fundamentals (Pre-Vocational) qualification.
- Create the following for the qualification:
- Learner guides
- Assessments
- Model answers
A Technical Committee (TC) will guide the project, with membership drawn from industry, registered training organisations, schools and the Victorian Government.
The reviewed training products are due to be submitted to the Assurance Body by, 26 February 2027.
Industry Skills Australia (ISA) will engage with stakeholders throughout the life of the project and consider all ideas, opinions, and feedback to the revised training products to ensure they meet the needs of industry. A consultation log containing a high-level summary of all feedback and ISA’s response will be maintained and available on our website.
ISA will facilitate a webinar following endorsement of the training products to support stakeholders in understanding the changes and how they will affect them.