Training Another 30,000 are employed by Network Rail on all aspects of infrastructure engineering. This leaves around a further 60,000 people employed by a large diversity of suppliers, contractors and sub-contractors to the rail industry. It has also left a major problem of how to assure common training and skills standards across the diversified industry — hence the proposed national competency database.
bodies and government, to make sure that the industry has people with the right qualifications. The aim is to support the rail industry vision that ‘by 2015, the engineering workforce will have the necessary skills to support the maintenance, development and expansion of a first-class, cost effective 21st Century railway.’ Formation of the Academy followed a threeyear campaign led by Gil Howarth (pictured above) now NSARE’s Chief Executive and Company Secretary — and Pete Waterman who, although well known as a pop music impresario, is better known in the rail industry for owning and operating a railway engineering business at the Crewe Heritage Centre where he also trains apprentices. The need for the Academy was backed right across the railway industry, which matched the initial government funding to get the project started. Today’s rail industry is vastly different to that which preceded the privatisation of British Rail between 1994-97. There are now around 100,000 people engaged in railway engineering activities, of whom approximately 10,000 work on rolling stock engineering and maintenance — mostly employed by the train operating companies, while the remainder work in new build activities, such as at Bombardier Transportation, at present Britain’s only remaining significant train builder.
An additional factor is the age profile of many engineers in the rail industry and the need to attract young people to choose railways for their future careers as the older and more experienced engineers leave for retirement. The railway engineering industry offers some great career opportunities — but it needs to get this message out to school leavers and graduates. To this end, NSARE is now working closely with The Smallpeice Trust to raise awareness and interest in railway engineering career opportunities. Although the industry has not always enjoyed the most positive image among the public at large, the need for an improving and growing rail industry is being recognised increasingly by the business community and government.
This massive scheme, which is heralded as Europe’s largest construction project, has highlighted the shortage of skilled tunnelling engineering skills in Britain and led Crossrail to set up Europe’s first Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy (TUCA) — in Ilford — to ensure there are sufficient skilled people for the project to go ahead. These skills will also be essential for the construction of HS2 as at least a quarter of stage one will be in tunnels. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that Terry Morgan, the Chairman of Crossrail, is also Chairman of NSARE Limited. And at the Academy’s first AGM last December, Terry Morgan announced that Pete Waterman had been invited to become NSARE’s first patron: “Pete’s real passion is helping young people, particularly those who come from a less privileged background, to get a start in life,” he said. “He has campaigned tirelessly for Government funding for traditional apprenticeships, long before they were championed by this government and indeed the previous government.”
The government has continued to approve substantial modernisation and enhancements of the existing railway network, including electrification between London, Bristol and Cardiff and of the Trans-Pennine route between Manchester, Leeds and York, and a start on re-opening the rail route between Oxford, Bedford and Cambridge. NSARE is planning to undertake a detailed survey with the Office of Rail Regulation to identify engineering skills needed for the future in what is becoming a significant growth industry. The biggest railway engineering project currently under way is Crossrail, costing £15 billion — with tunnelling of a new 21km twin-bore route between Paddington and East London about to start. It will enable up to 24 commuter trains an hour to operate from Berkshire and Heathrow Airport in the west to Shenfield, in Essex, and Abbey Wood, on the borders of Greenwich and Bexley.
Accepting his certificate Pete Waterman said: “I am honoured to be made NSARE’s first Patron and I am delighted with the amazing progress that has been made, particularly in the past 12 months.” For more information, see www.nsare.org, or contact mark.allen@nsare.org. Words: Alan Marshall Images: NSARE
E R U T U F E H T F O N O I S I V Employee Access - Information - Learning - Assessments by smartphones and tablets Complete at a time and place to suit them.
Gather evidence of their development as they work and learn. Take photos, create video/audio and upload it to their personal CPD area - from their phone. Check progress towards their professional engineering competence framework.
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