TRAINING
conducted by Lloyd’s Register, sheds new light on the reasons why rail may be struggling to attract the brightest young graduates, and highlights a perception that too many engineers feel they have been boxed in by over- specialisation.
The organisation’s transportation director, John Stansfeld, who also sits on the board of the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering (NSARE), told RTM that the results of the survey of 220 engineers struck a chord with him.
He said: “The interesting point that came out of it was this question about specialising too early: I think that’s a bit of a conundrum in a way, because the railway industry’s always going to need specialist engineers, as well as more broad-based engineers.
“Clearly most of the respondents, the majority, seem to be saying they felt they had specialised too early, and were therefore constrained in the ways their careers could develop.”
He said the causes of this included the discipline they chose at the start of their careers, and maybe a shift in the way graduates are being trained, with less emphasis on sandwich courses and the broad-based graduate training programmes as existed under British Rail.
He said: “If you take Network Rail for instance, or a train operating company, what they have to offer a graduate now is of much more limited scope than would have been available for someone entering a British Rail training programme, which was a vertically integrated company where they did everything from running the trains to building the track and operating the systems and so forth.
“The results of this survey may well refl ect the fragmentation of the industry.”
Stansfeld continued: “One of the reasons for the perception that a lack of young people are going into rail is of course the lack of investment there’s been in the railways and the fragmentation of the industry after privatisation, which meant that it’s been seen as one of the ‘old’ industries. It’s only really recently that rail has started to get a higher profi le with investments in things like high- speed rail, driverless cabs, new signalling,
24 | rail technology magazine Jun/Jul 12
Asking the engineers A
Transportation director at Lloyd’s Register, John Stansfeld, talks to RTM about a new survey on engineering skills in the rail industry.
survey of members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)
all of those things that actually start to make it look interesting again. I think there’s a bit of an industry perception problem in terms of attracting young people into railway engineering.”
Tackling the problem The survey results
One remedy to over-specialisation is a greater emphasis on systems engineering, Stansfeld suggested.
It is important to ensure people aren’t placed in “particular silos” for years on end, he said, and trainee engineers need to understand the systems aspect of railway operations: how everything has a knock-on effect throughout the system.
“That needs to be built into the training of graduates and built into any of the academic degree programmes, this whole area of systems thinking,” he said. “As the railways become higher performance and more demanding in terms of availability and standards and safety, that systems thinking is absolutely essential. It really is an increasingly important part of the training and education for professional engineers, and I think that seems to be the main message that’s coming out of this survey.”
Another part of the solution is continuing and expanding the work being done to increase engagement between the industries and the academic sector, for example through the work of RRUKA as explained on page 18.
Stansfeld also highlighted the work being done by the Young Engineers, the Young Railway Professionals, the Smallpeice Trust and NSARE. Lloyd’s Register works with some of these organisations to deliver railway experience and education courses for school children, via the Lloyd’s Register Educational Trust. It and NSARE have been sponsoring such courses run by the Smallpeice Trust, the next of which is at Askham Bryan College in York from July 30 to August 2, giving 13 and 14 year olds the chance to explore the design, construction and operation of railways.
Stansfeld said: “There are lots of engineers, and certainly we’ve got some, who love getting involved in these courses. We’ve just
i More stories like this at:
www.railtechnologymagazine.com/ rail-jobs-staff-issues-and-training
Statement 1: The rail industry relies too much on internal, self-accredited training and standards rather than more generic qualifi cations to measure competence. This restricts recruitment of skilled candidates from other fi elds. It should be more open to skills brought in from other engineering disciplines.
Strongly Agree 17% Agree 41% No opinion 7% Disagree 30% Strongly disagree 3%
Statement 2: Qualifi cations within the rail industry are too ‘national’ in their approach. This will not adequately serve an industry that is likely to become increasingly international, with increases in cross-border operations and operators submitting tenders in other countries. It should work towards international qualifi cations, standards and certifi cates for staff at all levels
Strongly Agree 17% Agree 43%
No opinion 18% Disagree 20% Strongly disagree 2%
Statement 3: From the outset, training and development encourages specialisms within its workforce leading to narrow career paths that prohibits skills transfer and deters new entrants. Tomorrow’s engineers will benefi t from an emphasis on developing a wider level of knowledge from an earlier stage of their career
Strongly Agree 32% Agree 50% No opinion 8% Disagree 8% Strongly disagree 3%
For the full survey, and respondents’ comments on these survey questions, see
tinyurl.com/IMechE-survey
got to do more of that – we’re not going to change perceptions overnight; this is almost a generational change. But there’s no doubt about it, railways are going to become increasingly important because of all the congestion and carbon issues.”
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