IRAIL 2013
Dearman commended the students’ drive and pure enjoyment of the day, as well as their interaction with industry experts and the quality of their solutions to the challenges. He said: “It’s infectious isn’t it? You can’t help but fi nd yourself smiling when you’re sat in front of a group of enthusiastic teenagers, so fi red up for what they’re talking about that they’re giggling amongst themselves as they talk – it’s brilliant.
“I found the whole day really infectious. I’m in awe of young people at this age being able to apply themselves so readily, quickly and effectively to problems that were sprung upon them at a moment’s notice.”
Free thinking and practicality
There were two main areas that impressed Dearman; a “strong degree of out-of-the- box thinking” from Merrill school, and from winning Sinfi n, “a real grounded practicality of what can and can’t be done”.
He explained: “What really swung it for the Sinfi n team was the fact that they had researched the cost of copper scrap and aluminium scrap and they were able to articulate why it was better to use the cheaper material. I thought that was really something, at their age, to think to that depth is really good.”
38 | rail technology magazine Apr/May 13
On the particular challenges chosen by the Transport Innovation Network (iNet) and the DDRF – which are changed every year to keep the event current – Dearman commented: “It’s a railway – it’s got every problem under the sun. I could think of lots of other things that could have been looked at, but I think they were perfectly laudable and very sensible challenges. The briefi ng time is limited and you’ve got to be able to explain the problem quickly; I was impressed by that.”
Fresh ideas, fresh minds
On the rail industry’s
duty and effectiveness at promoting itself as a viable career choice for young people, he said: “I’d like to see us doing a lot more.” This could be as much to do with the scale of work available, based on investment, as shaking off a dusty reputation to appeal to the next generation, Dearman said.
“I think the railway is moving to a very different profi le of spend. For the past 20 years our
spending has been dominated by maintaining what we’ve got, stewardship of our assets, putting right some problems that the industry has had.
“We’re now moving, in the next fi nancial control period, to a much increased investment with new works.
“The electrifi cation programme, which is dear to my heart, will need many more engineers, technicians and people to do the work than we have in place currently.
“We don’t do enough of this, because it needs young people involved with fresh ideas, fresh minds, to take on the challenge of doing this long into the future.
“It is really vital to keeping our industry alive.”
Opportunities to offer
The problem was not as simple as a lack of concern about the issue from the industry, or lack of interest from students, but Dearman said: “There’s a bit of both going on, I think the one predicates the other.
RTM has been supporting iRail since 2011.
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