The HRSS intends to facilitate further converging of competence standards, while recognising that sufficient local flexibility needs to be maintained, and developing the management system in HOPS to deliver this.

Rather than just a processes for managing competence, actual systems for delivering competence management and assessment, supported by assessment tools and materials (eg e-learning).

It is recognised that one standard does not fit all railways, but it is believed that there is a lot of commonality and overlap, and the facility to easily integrate and compare competence criteria from a number of different railways will lead to an improvement in standards to all contributors.