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Employability in the Face of Demographic Change – Prospects for the European Rail Sector

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The European social partners in the rail sector, the Community of European Railways and Infrastructure Companies (CER), the European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM), and the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), together with the EVA European Academy for Environmentally Friendly Transport worked on the challenges of the demographic change in the context of a project funded by the European Union. The result is a guide with more than thirty examples of good practices, addressing the issue of demographic change and employability in the European railway companies. These actions are focused on the areas of recruitment and education, further education and qualifications, health promotion, and appropriate working conditions for the various life phases.

In addition, the Guide includes the outcomes and the evaluation of a survey, which was carried out in the course of the project on employability and demographic change. 35 European railway companies and trade unions participated in this survey. Almost 80 % of the companies surveyed expect that demographic change will impact on the recruitment in their companies. At the same time, age-specific actions have not yet spread very widely in the railway companies.

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