On October 30, 2019, RB Rail AS Project Manager Artūrs Caune visited first year students of Transportation Systems Engineering at Riga Technical University. The purpose of this visit was to introduce young professionals to the future opportunities offered by Rail Baltica.
First year students of RTU majoring in Transportation Systems Engineering had the opportunity to learn about the history of Rail Baltica, the progress of the project, the environmental impact and the daily lives of employees. At the moment, active construction and design work are in progress for more than 400 km of the railway line in all three countries. Caune invited students to consider not only the benefits of Rail Baltica, but also the challenges, such as taking measures during the design phase in order to adapt to possible climate changes, and as future engineers, take notice of the interconnections of the economic development in the Baltics.
Rail Baltica’s core values are its emphasis on people, professionalism and determination. Caune emphasized: “First of all, you need to want to become an outstanding expert”, mentioning that the key qualities that young professionals need in order to be part of the Rail Baltica team are ambition, desire for challenges and adventures, ability to navigate the digital world, proficiency in professional and industry level English, as well as the ability to cooperate in an international and multicultural environment.
Caune sees the greatest opportunities in the job market specifically for engineers who have mastered several disciplines. Digital construction specialists, railway systems engineers and transport construction engineers specializing in high-speed rail design or construction, or in the management of these processes are and will be needed in the design and later in the construction phase.
Similarly, the ability to manage interfaces across disciplines is playing an increasingly important role, and there is tremendous scope for construction professionals with such competencies and talent to coordinate multidisciplinary teams. For highly specialized and highly qualified professionals to develop solutions, they are required to have an overall view of the system and an understanding of all the components whose interaction is mandatory for the system to function optimally. At the same time, A. Caune invites aspiring engineers to pursue an additional profession in the construction or railroad industry as close to the work environment as possible while studying at the university. Such practitioners make the greatest contribution to the success of projects.
Rail Baltica predicts that a total of 36 000 new jobs will be created, and given the existing shortage of specialists in Latvia, many doors will open not only for project managers, but also engineers and other industry professionals in all three Baltic countries.