Certificate in Railway Control Engineering Fundamentals
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  1. Licensing
  2. Membership & Registration
  3. Qualifications & Careers
  4. Publications & Resources
  5. Get Involved
    IRSE 109th Annual General Meeting and Presidential Address
    Friday 28 April 2023 took place in Melbourne Australia, livestreamed and recorded
    Click here for a link to the recording
  6. News
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Certificate in Railway Control Engineering Fundamentals (Module A)

Exam support resources - Certificate in Railway Control Engineering Fundamentals (Module A)

The Certificate in Railway Control Engineering Fundamentals qualification covers all aspects of railway control engineering at a foundation level.

This is a stand-alone qualification as well as being the mandatory pre-qualifier for all wishing to sit the Advanced Diploma In Railway Control Engineering in the future.

The Certificate in Railway Control Engineering Fundamentals is suitable for a much wider group of people working on or around railway control and communications systems than the full IRSE professional exam. Junior signalling and telecoms engineers, project managers, project planners, software developers and managers of contractors and sub-contractors will demonstrate a broad knowledge of railway control and communications systems engineering by passing this module.

 

Changes to the syllabus and reading list for the Certificate (module A) exam - effective from the October 2023

The following changes have been agreed by Education & Professional Development Committee and these pages have been updated accordingly:

  • governance has been removed from the syllabus
  • "back to basics" articles from recent issues of IRSE News have been added to the reading list
  • articles covering governance, human factors and secondary systems have been removed from the reading list - there is some content relating to these subjects elsewhere
  • there are new versions of articles in the reading list covering dependability, metros, system management and interfaces and interactions (minor changes)
  • some of the historical and UK-specific content of the "back to basics" article on train protection has been withdrawn from the essential reading list and questions will not be set on the withdrawn content

 

 

Syllabus

The syllabus for the Certificate in Railway Control Engineering Fundamentals (module A) is available in the reading list.

Questions will cover all 10 learning objectives:

  1. Operations: how a railway is operated to provide a safe and reliable service
  2. Technical principles: railway control and communications philosophy and high level principles
  3. Safety principles: safety engineering principles as applicable to a railway
  4. Technical functions: the basic concepts of railway signalling and control systems
  5. Applications: the functionality and potential limitations of various types of signalling, telecommunications and control equipment
  6. Lifecycle: the basic concepts of system lifecycle
  7. Maintenance: how maintenance, inspection and testing keep the railway safe and reliable
  8. Integrity: the basic concepts of design of fail-safe hardware and high-integrity software
  9. No longer in syllabus but some content transferred to learning objective 6 - Governance
  10. Technical interfaces: the interfaces and interactions between railway control and communications and related systems within the railway and stakeholders
  11. External interfaces: the role of railway control and communications in functions other than the control of train movement
Closed book exams

All IRSE exams are closed book, which means that candidates should not have anything open in their exam environment which could assist them in their exam. This includes, but is not limited to, having social media and other apps / programmes open on their computer, having study guides and information open and communicating with other candidates.

All exam candidates will be monitored by remote invigilation software and answers for modules B, C and D will be reviewed by anti-plagiarism software.

Latest exam paper

Previous exam papers for the Certificate are not published. 

Candidates, however, are given access to an online practice paper when they have applied to sit the module.

Sample questions and answers are available, see our reading list page.

Reading list and support materials - updated April 2023

All documents within the essential reading list are available on our reading list page, available to IRSE members and non-members.

Other support materials for the Certificate in Railway Control Engineering Fundamentals (Module A) are in the document library below.

Many study videos are also available on IRSE's Vimeo channel via https://vimeo.com/showcase/study.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites to sit the Certificate in Railway Control Engineering Fundamentals (module A). IRSE members and non-members are encouraged to study for, and to sit, the module.

How to book

Opportunities to sit the Certificate are planned to take place in early March and early October each year.

Bookings for the March exam normally open in the December and close at end of January.  Bookings for the October exam normally open in the April / May and close at the end of July.

Candidate guides (in the document library below) will give further details.

For 2023, the next exam will be on Saturday 7 October and booking is now open until 31 July here - https://www.irse.org/Get-Involved/Events/Event-Details/eventDateId/1450.

Location of exam

There will be no exam centres in 2023, with all exam candidates sitting the exam at a suitable location for them. Candidates will need a computer or laptop and a reliable internet connection which can access the exam website and software. Candidates will be given access to practice sessions to ensure that this works for them (see terms and conditions in document library below).

Candidates are reminded that all IRSE exams are closed book exams and that they will be monitored by remote invigilation software.