55 Years at the Forefront of Transport Continuous Professional Education

Abstract

A brief history of formation, evolution and development of the RAPS (Russian Academy of Transport and Transportation), one of the leading educational units of additional professional education in transport, is disclosed.The objective of preparing the article was to summarise the experience of the Academy in solving the problems of improving additional professional education (APE) over a 55-year period. The method of retrospective system analysis was used as a toolkit.The initial model of organisation of the educational process and the corresponding organisational structure of a new type of educational institution are presented. The importance of attracting the heads of railway corporate entities and leading scientists of branch research institutes and design organisations to conduct classes is shown.Changes in the organisational structure of the Academy related to refinement and scaling of the tasks to be solved are described. The analysis of the use of various forms and methods of training was carried out, the expediency of final qualifying works of students in solving urgent production problems was substantiated.The essence of changes in the system of advanced training in railway transport during the transition from a planned to a market economy is revealed. The conceptual model of reorganisation of the Academy when working in terms of self-sufficiency is outlined. The procedure for the transition of an educational institution to full self-financing is described. The necessity of forming a new type of a teacher – an organiser of training is substantiated. The main features of the work in market conditions are revealed. The characteristic of the formed organisational structure of the Academy is given.The methods of solving complex problems by the Academy in the conditions of the large-scale economic crisis of the 1990s, including freezing the cost of training students for a certain period, are analysed. The main directions of development of the Academy in the 2000s and the results obtained are shown. The most significant implemented projects are disclosed, including organisation of training of leading specialists of railway transport abroad.The gradual transition of the Academy in the 2010s to the advanced training of specialists in various types of transport is illustrated. An analysis of the problems associated with work during a pandemic was carried out. The ways of improving the skills of trainees using the webinars are disclosed.The main trends for improving the work of the Academy in the medium term are formulated.