From 1 September, all technical and non-technical training courses at the Infrabel Academy will be centralised on the Brussels West campus as much as possible. It is an ambitious project that has had to adapt to the health constraints.

It was 4 January 2021. Unofficially, it was on this date that the first “students” of the Infrabel academy walked onto the campus for the first time. Officially, the new training centre only opened on 1 September, nine months later. “In the first months after it opened, our activities on campus were reduced to essential training courses,” says Lucien De Keersmaeker, Manager Academy. We will now be able to use our centre to its full capacity thanks to the relaxation of the health measures. All our training will be centralised here from now on.”

An interdisciplinary space

Our campus, which is equipped with reused equipment that allows the simulation of real situations encountered in the field, is a formidable tool for our company and will enable us to bring together all Infrabel’s professions. “Our space will be interdisciplinary,” explains Jean-Marc Conrad, Head of Learning and Development. On the same day, some colleagues will work on catenaries, while others will practise track or signalling work… It will be a sort of mini-Infrabel that will allow colleagues from different professions to meet and learn from each other, sometimes in different languages.”

“Until now, practical training has been almost exclusively on the job,” adds Lucien De Keersmaeker. “As disruptions to rail traffic must be kept to a minimum, colleagues in training often lacked the time to carry out their tasks at their own pace. In the future, these field exercises will of course continue, but they will be preceded by exercises on campus, in a totally safe place, where making mistakes is part of the learning process.

A forward-looking future

The Infrabel Academy campus operates like a university campus, and its ambitions extend beyond Infrabel’s borders. One of the academy’s roles is to open up to the outside world,” says Jean-Marc Conrad. To this end, we have started to make contact with universities, colleges and employment agencies such as Forem. Our Railway University will both promote our professions in terms of engagement, and build bridges in terms of learning and innovation. “

In addition, the “Railway Technology” lectures, which have been given by Infrabel employees to engineering students at the VUB and ULB for more than ten years, will take place at the Academy Campus from the 2021-2022 academic year.

In short, innovation will be omnipresent on campus from the start of the academic year. Even in the training methods, as they have already abandoned ex cathedra in favour of exercises that are much more focused on practice.