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A collection of articles featuring AssessTech
These articles were written by us, our customers, our suppliers, journalists and anyone else with something to say about AssessTech and our contribution to Competence Management for a Safer Railway.
Improve competence management in Australia and New Zealand
Freight, passenger and light rail operators across Australia and NZ have yet to be introduced to the benefits of electronic competence management and the transformation it can make to systems, processes and the overall assessment of staff.
Opening a NEW Australian office
This month sees us opening a new office in Brisbane, Australia. The decision to open this office is an example of our commitment to further enhance the safety of the rail industry by introducing the benefit of electronic developmental competence management to the APAC region.
New service launch and three new appointments as AssessTech expands and grows
This month sees the launch of our NEW Rail Performance Improvement service and expansion of our Customer Operations Team…
Industry Best Practice Leader Harsco are leading the way with the adoption of electronic competence management
Harsco Rail were previously using paper-based assessment processes to record competence levels which was extremely resource intensive, old fashioned and open to potential human error.
Developmental Competence Management in the ‘new normal’ world
In a previous blog we’ve explored Developmental Competence Management, this is now more important than ever.
What will the ‘new normal’ look like for AssessTech as we come out of #Lockdown?
On March 23rd 2020 the UK changed. As the Coronavirus pandemic was taking hold, businesses were at a standstill wondering what the future would look like for them.
AssessTech Knowledge Base
Our new Knowledge Base is live!
Supporting 85% of the UK rail network
We carried out some research recently as we were curious about how much of the UK rail network we support through our training and technology solutions. We are delighted to report that we currently work with 85% of the UK’s rail network.
AssessTech’s technology solutions improving processes during #UKLockdown
Social distancing has created a huge range of challenges for business across all industries. However, in the railway industry we’ve seen our clients pivot quickly to embrace technology which is yielding improved results in terms of process improvement and efficiencies.
Eurostar switches electronic competence management to AssessTech
Eurostar recently implemented ACMS, having previously used an alternative electronic competence management system since 2013.
Dealing with the impossible in times of #UKLockdown
It has been interesting delivering the ‘almost impossible’ training courses this week. We recently used our Incident Recovery Kit simulation game in a virtual SIO training course for MTREL.
Taking the ‘Impossible’ Training Online
Sally Brinkley was very pleased to be asked to speak at the latest accessplanit Webinar.
With this brave new world of social distancing, at AssessTech we have had to face up to some interesting challenges to move all of our training online. Some of this was impossible, or so we were told…
Dealing with increased incidents during a green light railway
With passenger numbers estimated to drop by 70% during times of social distancing there’s huge pressure being put on the UK rail industry to keep running. We are experiencing less trains and it’s assumed that this would make the railway safer. However, this might not be the case…
Opening up people’s eyes to new training methods
As you will have read in our previous blog, we have moved all our training to video conferencing as most of our candidates are now working from home. The online training is going so well, we may even consider maintaining it as a permanent option alongside classroom training after we return to normal.
Moving all our training online to keep you safe
As one of the UK’s leading training partners to the UK rail industry we understand how important it is for the safety of your staff, customers and the railway to maintain staff training and assessments.
We’d like to think we’re pretty innovative in our thinking, so as a result of the Coronavirus live event ban, we quickly moved all our training courses to interactive video conferencing this week.
Keeping your social distance doesn’t mean abandoning your training activities
At AssessTech, we’re always looking for innovative ways to keep our customers businesses operating efficiently and safely and with the COVID19 pandemic, we now more than ever need to think differently.
CrossCountry Trains have adopted a developmental competence management approach for their staff
The Control department had previously encountered challenges to maintain the competence management processes within their team. Duty Managers were tasked with the role of staff assessment and they were too busy with their day job and grappling with the vast amount of paperwork and lack of time, that there were few real meaningful assessments being carried out.
AssessBook integrates with accessplanit
AssessBook integrates with accessplanit’s software to create a smooth, automated competence record.
National Express Germany choose AssessTech as their preferred supplier of electronic competence management
The company had an internal requirement to streamline their reporting and improve compliance, so Head of Safety Daniel Preis was tasked with finding a solution. Having looked at various solutions in the industry, Preis chose AssessTech’s electronic competence management solution ACMS as their preferred platform.
Working Towards ISO 27001
As part of our ongoing commitment to customers, and to enhance business continuity, we are currently working towards securing the ISO 27001 accreditation in early 2020.
Investment in the rail infrastructure in the US opens up lots of new potential opportunities
Director of Training at AssessTech Gabriel Stroud recently visited Los Angeles to attend Smart Transit, an event hosted in Los Angeles looking at how digitalization and technology is revolutionizing transit in the US, from enhanced analytics technologies to real-time passenger information systems. Rail will become the next big area of infrastructure investment for the US.
Highlights from the 2019 User Forum
This year’s User Forum provided an excellent overview of the enhancements planned and delivered for ACMS, AssessBook and AssessTube over the last year as well as focusing on the new system features, Forms and the Check Module.
User Forum 2019
2019 User Forum focuses on new features, new themes and new platforms.
Our User Forums provide competence management professionals, across heavy and light rail, an opportunity to get together to find out about developments in AssessTech’s range of products, give feedback on their experiences, discuss industry challenges and share best practice.
Tram Operations Ltd leading the way in electronic competence management
Tram Operations Ltd knew they needed to upgrade their existing processes to evaluate driver performance and strengthen their risk controls and have adopted ACMS as their solution.
Developmental Competence explained at UKLRC 2019
AssessTech explained why developmental competence management is crucial for light rail at this year’s UK Light Rail Conference.
Developmental Competence for Light Rail at the UK Light Rail Conference
As the industry’s leading annual congress and exhibition, the UK Light Rail Conference taking place in Manchester on 23 and 24 July brings together over 250 tramway, light rail and metro professionals. AssessTech’s operations director Sally Brinkley is amongst the 55 speakers and panellists.
AssessTech’s User Forums – What to Expect
The next AssessTech user forum will take place on 18 Sept in Woburn Conference Centre, London. We spoke to Naheem Manir of West Midland Trains to find out his thoughts on the forums.
Southeastern Railway moved to electronic competence management
When paper-based assessments started to become highly inefficient and gaps started to appear in the assessment process, Southeastern Railway decided to adopt an electronic competence management process.
Focus on safety at EU Light Rail Conference
The recent EU Light Rail Conference which took part in Brussels on 16th and 17th May attracted decision makers and industry influencers from across the light rail and tramway systems industry and one of the key themes discussed this year was the role of technology in safety management.
EU Light Rail Conference 2019
Sally Brinkley is speaking at this year’s EU Light Rail Conference on Developmental Competence in Light Rail.
Best Railway Technology and Training Consultancy 2019 AWARD
We are delighted to have been awarded the Best Railway Technology and Training Consultancy in the 2019 Transport Awards, organised by SME News.
Behind the scenes… Training Team
The third in our Behind the Scenes blogs introduces you to the learning and development team at AssessTech who have the role of ensuring that Assessors, IQAs, Instructors, Trainers and Candidates are all up-to-date in their training and competence requirements.
ACMS is Really Helping at Greater Anglia
Greater Anglia have reduced their competence assessment administration by 50% by switching to electronic competence.
AssessTech Joins RSSB
AssessTech are really pleased to announce that we became members of the RSSB this week.
Individuals at c2c take full control of their own learning
Individuals at c2c take full control of their own learningc2c, owned by Italian operator Trenitalia, were the pioneers of ACMS in 2010. As a business reliant on a paper based CMS, like most other TOCs at the time, the business struggled with challenges around...
Behind the Scenes… Development Team
This is the second of our Behind the Scenes blogs and this month we introduce you to the developers who have the mammoth task of creating new pieces of software and new features to keep our customers happy, as well as fixing bugs and upgrading the software performance.
Heathrow Express staff migration to GWR was a smooth process thanks to ACMS
The recent migration of train operations staff from Heathrow Express (HEx) to GWR caused a few issues. However, by using AssessTech’s ACMS platform the transition of staff competence records was a smooth process, maintaining all existing data sets and systems intact.
Behind the scenes… Customer Services Team
Behind the scenes... Customer Services TeamFrom left to right, Will, James and BrockAt the heart of the AssessTech operation is the customer services team. These are the people who deal with front line customer queries, working closely with the development team on...
AssesTech’s Round-up of 2018
ROUND-UP OF 2018 2018 has been a busy year for AssessTech. We’ve managed the electronic transfer of competence records from HEX to GWR to support employee migration, the adoption of competence management within light rail via Tram Operations Ltd, a stronger focus on...
User Forum 2018
USER FORUM 2018 The Assesstech User Forum, held on the 19th September 2018 in central London, brought together a wide range of competence management experts to find out about new developments in AssessTech products, share experience and industry best practice, raise...
Incident Recovery Kit – A Tabletop Simulation
The Incident Recovery Kit is an interaction tabletop simulation, played in the style of a board game. It’s been developed, By AssessTech, as a training aid for roles such as TOLO, SIO and RIC
Developmental Competence Management
Developmental Competence ManagementWhat is it? And why is it extremely important now that staff are working remotely? Developmental Competence Management is all about putting the candidate front and centre of the process, focussing on their needs and encouraging them...
Fatigue and Fitness Management – Be Proactive!
Reduce Incidents and save time by being proactive about Fatigue and Fitness management.
From Robots to Competence Management Systems…
Gabriel Stroud, a man well known as the team captain and weapon operator for his fighting robot ‘Tanshe’ on This is Fighting Robots, and Sabre Tooth on Robot Wars in the UK, is also the inspiration behind ACMS, AssessTech’s electronic competence management system…
AssessTech User Forum: Date Announced
Our next User Forum is scheduled for Wednesday, 19th September 2019 in Central London. Contact us for an invitation…
Rail Professional Article: Reducing Incidents through Competence Management
AssessTech’s ethos is that competence management lowers business risk and reduces incident rates through targeted training and development of people. One of their clients, Heathrow Express has done just that. They reduced incidents from 25 in a two year period to just 2, here’s how…
