Essex lad Jake Edgar is encouraging people to apply early as Network Rail’s popular and award-winning Advanced Apprenticeship scheme opens for applications.
The company is looking to recruit 150 apprentices nationwide as it continues to deliver its £38bn Railway Upgrade Plan. Last year, it received more than 3,500 applications for the scheme. Apprentices will be part of the 20,000-strong orange army of front line engineers and technicians who fix and maintain the rail infrastructure, enabling 1.6 billion journeys every year.
The three-year Advanced Apprenticeship scheme offers young people over the age of 18, a chance to earn while they learn, while gaining valuable work experience, transferable skills and recognised qualifications along the way.
The scheme was launched as the Government announced its commitment to 30,000 apprenticeships across the transport sector over the course of this parliament as part of its Transport Skills Strategy.
Jake from Colchester, who works at the depot in Ely, said: “If you’re like me and not particularly academic, this is great. You get a good job, qualifications and skill. Engineering is perfect for me, I like using my hands and once I qualify I get decent pay. Once I’ve qualified I would like to work in the technical office doing track surveying.
“It’s an intense experience and a lot of work but it’s interesting. I much preferred this way of intense learning in a short space of time to the having to do day release over a much longer time period.”
Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne said: “Bringing bright, young talent with fresh thinking, enthusiasm and dedication to our 35,000-strong team is a critical part of how we will deliver our Railway Upgrade Plan and make our railway bigger and better as it becomes ever increasingly busy.
“We want talented and capable young people who want a job where you make a difference every single day as we continue to build a better, safer railway for now and for the future.”
This September will see the Advanced Apprenticeship scheme move from its naval base at HMS Sultan in Gosport, Hampshire to its modern training and development centre in the West Midlands. Apprentices train in one of five specialist areas: track, signalling, telecoms, electrification and plant or overhead lines. They spend the first five months of the three-year scheme at the West Midlands training centre and then move to their local depots and learn through on-the-job training on the railway’s front line, gaining knowledge and vital skills from experienced team members. This is complemented by additional off-railway learning at our training centres.
More than 2,000 people have joined Network Rail’s Advanced Apprenticeship scheme since 2005. These include school and college leavers as well as those that were unhappy with their jobs, and chose to go back and into training to secure a more stable, long-term career. The majority of those coming through the apprentice scheme also progress their career with Network Rail, with 85% of those who started on the 2005 Apprenticeship Scheme still working for the organisation.
The Network Rail Advanced Apprenticeship scheme is open to anyone who is 18 by 1st October 2016. Further details on the scheme, including cases studies of current and former apprentices talking about their own experiences, can be found on our website: http://www.networkrail.co.uk/apprentices.