Media centre

Thursday 17 Sep 2009

TRAIN-ING BEGINS FOR RAIL APPRENTICES IN THE SOUTH EAST

Region & Route:

| Southern

At a time when unemployment is at a 14-year high and with one in five 16 to 24-year-olds out of work, almost 90 young people from the south east this week joined Network Rail’s award-winning advanced apprentice scheme, becoming part of the latest rail revolution which will see £35bn invested in a bigger and better railway over the next five years.

Together the young engineers make up more than one-third of the scheme's 2009 intake of 233 young people, who will spend their first year studying technical, practical and personal development activities at Europe’s largest specialist engineering training centre at HMS Sultan in Gosport, Hampshire. Here they live and work alongside the Royal Navy, sharing state-of-the-art recreation and sports facilities. Apprentices will train as specialists in track, signalling, electrification and plant, or telecoms.

While training at the Gosport centre continues throughout their second and third years, apprentices extend their development by learning on the job at rail engineering depots across Britain, where they are supervised by experienced teams.

With this year’s intake, Network Rail has hired over 1,000 apprentices since its launch in 2005 and will train a further 1,200 over the next five years.

Commenting on the new apprentice intake, Network Rail chief executive, Iain Coucher, said: "This is an exciting time to begin working in the rail industry, to train and develop new skills so they can be part of the future of Network Rail. I believe investing in our people is an investment in all our futures, building a better railway and a better skilled Britain."

Notes to Editors:

Network Rail’s September 2009 apprenticeship intake are scheduled to spend the second and third years of their training spread across the following depots in the south east:

Ashford, Kent
Bedford, Bedfordshire
Bletchley, Buckinghamshire
Brighton, East Sussex
Canterbury, Kent
Colchester, Essex

Eastleigh, Hampshire
Hitchin, Hertfordshire
Orpington, Kent
Reading, Berkshire
Tonbridge, Kent
Woking, Surrey

Network Rail recently won the Serco Talent Award, in association with the Talent & Enterprise Taskforce, at the annual Business in the Community (BITC) Awards for Excellence. The awards are the UK’s most influential, independent, peer assessed corporate responsibility awards. They recognise and celebrate those companies who have shown innovation, creativity and a sustained commitment to corporate responsibility.

Network Rail will begin recruiting for the 2010 intake in January. Visit http://www.everydaybrilliance.co.uk/ for more information on the scheme.