EQUIPPING FOR THE FUTURE - NETWORK RAIL SIGNS SKILLS PLEDGE

Wednesday 1 Oct 2008

EQUIPPING FOR THE FUTURE - NETWORK RAIL SIGNS SKILLS PLEDGE

Region & Route:: National

Network Rail took another big step today on its journey to train and develop its people when it became the latest – and one of the biggest – British companies to sign the government’s skills pledge.

In the coming months Britain’s rail infrastructure operator, working with the Learning and Skills Council, will carry out a thorough audit of the adult literacy and numeracy skills of its frontline maintenance and operations people. Then it will develop and implement a programme so these skills can be raised up to the standard of NVQ levels 1 and 2.

Signing the pledge, Network Rail’s chief executive, Iain Coucher said: “I am determined that Network Rail offers our people every opportunity to improve themselves through targeted and tailored training and development. As the railway becomes more technologically advanced it is crucial that our people have the right skills.

“As we continue our task to build a bigger and better railway we will need a workforce that is well equipped to face the challenges ahead.

“People are our most precious resource. We want to see them confident in their abilities. To keep them engaged and valued we must – and we will – equip them for the future.”

It is envisaged that the exercise to identify those Network Rail people requiring skills training will take four to five months with training delivery starting in June 2009.

Mr Coucher added: “This latest initiative with the LSC builds upon the training and development revolution unleashed by Network Rail.”

Notes to editors

• Over 50% of Network Rail’s workforce are engaged in engineering functions; • Network Rail spent £25.5m on vocational training last year. The budget allocation for 2008/9 is £30m • Network Rail’s apprenticeship schemes will deliver over 2,000 skilled technicians over the next 10 years; • Network Rail runs one of the largest apprenticeship schemes in the country, at HMS Sultan in Gosport. • Network Rail receives £2m per annum from the Learning and Skills Council towards our apprenticeship programme; • We estimate that in total we run just over 160,000 training days every year with the average take up for Network Rail’s front-line employees being about ten days training each year; • In the last financial year Network Rail spent £48.2m on research and development; In addition, Network Rail has: • Set up maintenance and signalling training schools; • Developed a foundation degree in rail engineering at Sheffield Hallam University; • Opened a leadership development centre; • Been given awarding body status by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority; • Launched an MSc in project management at University College London and the University of Warwick

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We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

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