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RECRUITMENT
Getting rail on the curriculum
A key message at Infrarail was the need to foster an industry-wide approach to developing and recruiting a highly-skilled workforce of the future. David Stevenson reports.
At
Infrarail 2014, a discussion event titled ‘Getting rail on the curriculum’ attracted
some major speakers. They included Lord (Kenneth) Baker of Dorking, who introduced the national curriculum while education secretary in the 1980s and has more recently championed University Technical Colleges (UTCs); Patricia Holgate, from TfL’s strategic talent, skills and executive development team; James Lloyd, resourcing manager at TfL; and Bill Templeton, head of education programmes at Network Rail.
The audience at the event heard how the rail industry is already aiming to plan for a future highly-skilled workforce through collaborations with UTCs, which offer a specialist professional and technical education, in a business-like environment, to students between 14 and 18 years old.
Holgate said: “We need to work as whole industry to get skills development right. We want to create UTCs as a sustainable option at TfL for the rail industry’s future.”
She highlighted that UTCs offer a great opportunity to influence secondary education as it gets rail back on the curriculum - allowing “industry to influence young people’s skillsets”.
TfL has worked mainly with the Royal Greenwich UTC, which teaches technical qualifications focusing on engineering, construction and related industries alongside core academic subjects for GCSEs and A-levels. The UTC opened last year and already has 300 students.
As a non-financial engineering sponsor of the college, TfL has been working directly with it to provide time and technical expertise through demonstrations and supporting the curriculum for students who enrolled in September 2013. TfL donated a decommissioned Tube carriage to help students with their practical
134 | rail technology magazine Jun/Jul 14
a great difficulty in recruiting young people to work on the railways because [from the outside] it appeared to be a ‘Victorian’ industry, and it wasn’t as exciting as computing.
“The outside world doesn’t realise the complexity of the industry and the supply chain and how technologically advanced you are. If you don’t attract good technicians and engineers at a young age, you haven’t got much of a future, frankly. We are one of the few education solutions that does this training.”
Lloyd said the first year has been a real learning curve for all involved. But parents considering sending their children to UTC Greenwich were impressed with the standard of the current TfL apprentices and graduates. In September, TfL will introduce a new mentor programme to encourage and develop engineering students, and potential future rail leaders, while they study.
Lloyd discussed the ‘Inspire Engineering’ sessions developed with the London Transport
development and learning. Lord
Baker
Museum, open to all secondary schools, which more than 2,000 students have attended.
said: “The schools are very
demanding. They have a working day of 8.30am-5pm, every day, with shorter holidays. But we discovered that one of the early adoptees of the UTC was the rail industry because Network Rail, Crossrail and TfL were finding
There are 17 UTCs already open, with 13 more opening during 2014 and then about 20 more during 2015.
Talking about the TfL donated carriage at UTC Greenwich, Lord Baker said: “I’m told that if the students can get the doors to close 20 seconds quicker, the industry can save zillions. I don’t know how you do it, but you do apparently!
“Our students work on projects like that up to two days a week, and 40% of their time is spent making and designing things with 60% on GCSEs and science.
“We are falling behind Europe in Level 3 and 4 training of engineers and technicians. It doesn’t matter who wins the next election (well, not entirely!) if we don’t train enough technicians and engineers we won’t be able to stimulate our industries, especially rail.”
Holgate added that getting the right people with the right skills, in the right place at the right time is becoming increasingly difficult. “It is actually holding the industry back in some cases, creating delays and raising costs,” she said.
After the event, Dr Peter Long wrote on the RTM website: “Kenneth Baker was a very welcome speaker at Earl’s Court – I was very impressed! Most staff in the industry welcome opportunities for training in all sorts of areas, which have been lost with privatisation.
“Everybody should be able to gain a foundation degree in rail studies, specialising in their own area of expertise. UTCs are a welcome development.”
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© Royal Greenwich UTC
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