TRAINING & SKILLS
portrayed as being a dirty, male-dominated environment. The reality is we’re a dynamic industry, we’ve seen unprecedented growth in the last 10 years and that is set to continue. It’s in all of our interests that we address this.”
Upskilling the workforce
reiterated the message that although 100,000 people work in the rail engineering sector, sadly only 4% are women.
“We want to change this,” he said. “Also, the fact that only 17% of our engineers and technicians are trained at Level 4-plus is really concerning. If you look at engineering-based industries, one would expect this to be at around 25%.
“We currently have a low-skill workforce, but in order to deliver a modern 21st century railway we will need to upskill the workforce.
“We need to recruit graduates and senior engineers, and important.”
apprentices will be very
of the National Training Academy for Rail (NTAR), due to open in autumn 2015.
development in traction and rolling stock for the UK rail industry.
“But every meeting I go to with regards to training, the question is asked: what is the biggest challenge for this industry? And the answer is leadership, leadership, leadership,” he said.
“Many industries fast-track their leaders by people moving from company to company, and it is accepted that it works. In this industry, we’re paranoid if we lose our best people to our
Prof Iwnicki said many students considering aerospace sectors, which undoubtedly have a better image. “Railway engineering is seen as men in orange suits with big spanners,” he said. “We need to change the message and show them how innovative our industry can be.”
Innovation and inspiration
the high speed line has the capacity to inspire railway engineering and construction.
at secondary schools; 2) Inspiring groups and sector – with a ‘clear line of sight’ to work.
“We’re bringing it all together into a feasibility study with ATOC and FutureRailway. We will
of Railway Research at the University of in engineering generally. “We need 87,000 new professional engineers per year but we’re currently only managing to recruit 51,000. That’s a massive shortfall,” he said.
technicians and engineers; and if you look at traction and rolling stock, a key area, 1,500.”
competitors; we have got to get people moving around and becoming leaders.”
training 10,000 people by 2019, everything needs to be brought together.
ambassadors, to support and expand year, our volunteers have spent over 3,600 hours of volunteering in schools,” she said.
“We’re also committing to carrying out 60 up and down the line of route – looking at how experience. This is for year 9 students.
higher-level vocational skills, with a wider role in raising the status of vocational careers. We’re looking to achieve parity between vocational and academic.”
Iwnicki added that UTCs, which RTM covered professional environment,
hugely focused
additional route through. “One which could lead to more people coming into rail,” he added.
‘People’ workstream, added: “We’re looking at helping and supporting organisations deliver ‘leavers to leaders’, whether it is from schools and colleges, the army, other companies or industries; it’s how we’re trying to get people in and develop them.
“We’re looking at how to develop leaders, but it’s early days. There is no one answer and it’s all of our responsibilities to make sure we’re contributing to deliver the new leaders of the future.”
opinion@railtechnologymagazine.com TELL US WHAT YOU THINK
rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 15 | 35
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