The third runway at London-Heathrow was one of the first casualties of the coalition government's regime; hundreds of building projects, including for schools, followed soon afterwards. The comprehensive spending review put paid to new construction and heralded the age of let's stick with what we already have.
The one area that escaped the chop was the rail industry. Big infrastructure projects such as [London] Crossrail and high-speed train links from London to Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham are still going ahead. Add in electrification of the lines in the urban north-west of England, and the demand for skilled labour on the railways looks buoyant for at least the next decade.
The trouble is, though, that unless something is done soon, there won't be enough people to work on these projects or those that might follow.
Skills shortage
Until its demise, British Rail (BR) ran acclaimed training programmes for engineers. Nothing since has quite matched them, and many who trained with BR will soon retire. Despite training offered by about 100 private providers and colleges, a serious skills shortage is looming.
Last month, in December 2010, Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, gave government backing to a new National Skills Academy for Rail Engineering (Nsare), expected to commence operations this year. One of its missions will be to lure more young people into an industry which, says Gil Howarth, the Nsare programme director, is still saddled with “an oily rag, steam engine image”.
Campaign aimed at the young
Howarth knows the challenge is considerable. “Railway engineering certainly isn't a career of choice,” he says. “People who do go into engineering find Formula One much more attractive, or aerospace, or nuclear. We have a huge challenge.” Things must change if rail is to attract the 1,000 apprentices and graduate entrants Howarth reckons it needs each year. And one way to make a difference is to persuade children and young people that rail is a good career.
To that end, a team of 600 young engineers have been recruited as ambassadors to go into schools, colleges and universities. “The best role models for young people are those who aren't much older, who have recently done an apprenticeship, degree or training in an FE college,” says Howarth.
Nsare will work in partnership with the Lloyds Register Educational Trust and the Smallpeice Trust, a charity that promotes engineering careers, to attract secondary school children. At Easter, it will offer a residential course for year nines at Nottingham University in railway systems engineering, and one for older students up to year 13 at Birmingham.
The government is putting in almost £3m over three years and 60 sponsors with an interest in the rail industry have come forward, among them Network Rail. “We have a skills gap, particularly in electrification,” a Network Rail spokesman says. “There's been a 15-year period of inactivity with new electrification which has led to low industry demand.
“Now we've had the go-ahead to expand the electrified network, there's a greater demand for skills. The academy will be a channel for the whole industry so that supply can better match demands.” Training accreditation will form a major part of Nsare's income. A new qualifications framework will be introduced based on “competencies the industry needs and [that] are nationally recognised”. Nsare is also looking at fresh approaches such as introducing level-4 apprenticeships, on a par with certificates of higher education. Historically, much of the rail industry's intake has failed to progress beyond level 2.
Howarth is keen to get more FE colleges involved. “We've never really engaged with them,” he says. Among those he has sought out are colleges in the rail heartlands of Crewe and Derby, whose engineering department is in the Roundhouse, a locomotive shed dating from the 1830s. Derby College has long-established links with rolling stock manufacturer Bombardier and with Rolls-Royce.
The image of railways
Yet even in this heartland, the image of rail as a grimy manual industry is hard to shake off. “Unless young people have contact with someone who knows what's goes on, that's how they see engineering,” says the vice-principal of Derby College, Steve Logan. “But those who get the opportunity to work in it and see the reality wake up to the fact that it isn't like that.” He sees the college “as a big asset” in helping Nsare promote career routes through engineering. “The academy is keen to broaden the intake, and the industry is still seen as very male dominated,” says Logan. “But it isn't what it was 50 years ago; there is a lot more technology, a lot more competences needed, and regulations.
The infrastructure is much more complex. Even for people working out on the track in the cold and wet, the skill levels needed are quite high.” Railways are woven into the fabric of Crewe-based South Cheshire College, whose roots can be traced to the 19th century when three rail companies joined forces to train staff.
The former vice-principal, Stan Cowell, who now works liaising with the community, says dynastic traditions of becoming a “railwayman” have prevailed in Crewe. “When Lord Adonis [the former Transport Secretary] visited, he found most of the students had been recommended by another member of the family or their next-door neighbour,” he says.
“But that's changing.” Stuart Nixon, 21, a trainee with URS/Scott-Wilson, specialising in signalling, is doing a foundation degree in electrical and electronic engineering at South Cheshire. He is not from a railway family and as a teenager never envisaged a career in rail until URS/Scott-Wilson gave him his first break. Nixon now thinks rail could offer rich possibilities. “The government is spending more money, yet I don't think a lot of people on my course are aware of what's happening and how the railways are trying to move forward,” he says. “The signalling I work with is very complex and there are new technical challenges.”
Opportunities are growing locally: South Cheshire is now working with a local company, Keltbray Aspire, which is involved in electrification and recently took on another 25 apprentice linesmen. But Cowell admits that a high-skills culture has still fully to take root. “People think level 2 or 3 is good. From the 1990s apprenticeships dropped very significantly within engineering manufacturing, but have started to recover,” he says.
Across the world
Howarth says the railways across the world are expanding faster than any other infrastructure and so there is little danger that new recruits to the industry could run out of work in future. In the U.K., there will be more high-speed rail links to follow those already agreed, he says.
“Historically, we've always had major projects — before Crossrail, it was west coast mainline, and before that, the channel tunnel.”— © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2011
