Certificate of Rail Competency (CORAC)

ATOC moves away from its traditional role as a system provider with effect from 1st January 2008 and travel agents will procure their Ticket Issuing Systems directly from suppliers. As a consequence, ATOC will no longer provide ELGAR or AJENTS 1 Training. This has given us an opportunity to redesign the QSC to focus more closely on building the knowledge your staff need to sell rail with confidence.

We will launch a new training module this year with the name -Certificate of Rail Agent Competency (CORAC)The key elements are:

• A one-hour National Rail online exam of 44 multiple choice questions2 half-hour TOC specific online exams of 20 multiple choice questions each from a selection of 5 TOCsIncorporation of the National Rail online exam within City & Guilds Travel and Tourism Level 2 Diploma for college students
• Online exams to take place at the city & Guilds approved centres throughout the country.

It is expected that many agency staff will adopt a 'Self Study' approach when preparing to meet the standards required to pass the exams. As a result, TTC Training are preparing to support students by offering the following:

• Course workbooks covering the National Rail section to guide them towards achieving the required standards
• Classroom style courses for those who prefer this learning approach

We anticipate that those taking the 'self study' approach will experience significantly lower fees than currently - prices will be announced shortly. As part of a wider licensing review, ATOC are planning to change the current requirements which call for a minimum of two members of staff or 20% of office staff engaged in rail activities, which ever is greater, to be qualified in QSC. This change will be communicated at a later date when details have been finalised.

If you require further information concerning these changes, please contact ATOC by e-mail to travelagents@atoc.org