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Wednesday 8 Jul 2009

YOU'RE HIRED: LONDONER PRAKASH IS 1,000TH NETWORK RAIL APPRENTICE

Region & Route:

| Southern

Network Rail has taken on its 1,000th apprentice just four years after launching its award-winning advanced scheme, which is based at Europe’s largest specialist engineering training centre at HMS Sultan, Gosport.

Nineteen-year-old Prakash Navaratnarajah from Southall in London along with over 200 other young people will start the first year of training at HMS Sultan. A year later he will join the signalling and telecommunications team at Stonebridge and be part of a 35,000 strong railway workforce delivering a £35bn investment programme to improve and maintain Britain’s rail network over the next five years.

Commenting on hiring the 1000th apprentice, Network Rail chief executive Iain Coucher said: “We believe in investing in our people. A bigger and better railway needs the very best in skills to succeed. By investing in the future of hundreds of young men and women, we invest in our own future too. I am immensely proud that we have reached this milestone of 1,000 apprentices and look forward to training the next 1,000.”

David Willetts MP, shadow secretary of state for universities and skills added: “I have been very impressed by the Network Rail apprentices that I have met. They are learning a valuable trade and getting excellent training at the same time. I am particularly impressed by the residential aspect of the programme, which teaches important life skills, and am very glad to see the scheme is growing - even during the recession. We want to see a big increase in apprenticeship places and are committed to ensuring there are more opportunities for young people than in the past.”

The award winning advanced apprenticeship scheme which combines personal development with technical training was launched in 2005 and will train an additional 1,200 in the next five years. In 2009 the company will spend more than £30 million on vocational training and is set to take on 280 graduate recruits, about double last years intake.

The milestone comes as Network Rail won a coveted business award for its dedication and commitment to investing in talent, creating new jobs and training apprentices for the future.

At a ceremony at Clarence House, HRH the Prince of Wales presented Network Rail with 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.

Stephen Howard, chief executive, Business in the Community, said: “Network Rail is a tremendous example of a company succeeding in their efforts to look outward, as well as inward, for talent during a recession. By investing in existing employees’ training and development needs, as well as promoting its apprenticeships and graduate training schemes externally, they send a clear signal to others that maintaining this level of commitment is possible, even during tough times. Our people are our future, and I congratulate Network Rail for achieving this award, after putting people at the heart of programmes that have improved the business on multiple levels.”