THE rail industry faces a ‘daunting challenge’ to recruit new staff to fill a skills gap, and will have to attract and re-skill adult workers from other industries—and possibly other countries.
  
But the task is being made more difficult because of the negative image of the industry portrayed to the public.
  
This was the gloomy view painted by Andy Meadows, Human Resources Director of National Express East Coast—and chairman of the Association of Train Operating Companies’ human resources forum—at a major conference in Derby to consider the industry’s future recruitment and training needs.
  
The conference, sponsored by Railnews and organised by RTC Group PLC, which operates ATA Recruitment, Catalis Rail Training and the Derby Conference Centre, heard of two new initiatives to attract people to the rail industry.
  
RTC Group announced details of its ‘Train into Rail’ project, aimed at attracting men and women leaving the armed forces to transfer their skills to train operators’ traction and rolling stock organisations.
  
And Bombardier Transportation gave details of a pilot project to be launched with The Prince’s Trust to create work opportunities in the rail industry for underprivileged and disadvantaged young people.

But the issue that all delegates at the conference were agreed on was the need to improve the rail industry’s public image to ease the recruitment challenge.
  
Bill Douie, chairman of RTC Group PLC, was strong in his view: “There is an enormous dyke of deprecating anti-rail sentiment in the media and the public mind that must be overcome,” he said. 
  
“There is insufficient positive public relations in the railway industry, and this needs to be addressed.”
   
Other delegates spoke of the need to prepare and inform school children so they can be attracted into the railway industry.
   
Andy Meadows told the conference: “The picture that appears to be emerging suggests that the current workforce, together with our share of new entrants leaving full-time education, will not be able to meet our needs either in terms of quality or quantity.
 
“We therefore must seek to attract and re-skill adult workers from other sectors and possibly other countries. The ‘Train into Rail’ initiative [to recruit people leaving the armed forces] I believe is a good example of what is needed.”
  
He went on: “So it is a very challenging even daunting picture, and in terms of our ability to compete with other industries we have some initial hurdles to overcome
  
“Such evidence that we already have indicates that the image of rail as an attractive employer and one that offers exciting careers is not as good as it should be!
 
“For a relatively small industry we command a disproportionate profile in the national media and political interest, with much of that coverage focusing on the negative aspects of rail. This does not aid recruitment,” he declared.
 
 “In addition, our many achievements get little national coverage or recognition although I believe we are starting to get better at this
  
“First of all we need to attract more people to consider a career in rail.”
  
Mr Meadows said much of rail’s problem lies in communication—and he threw down a challenge to the whole industry.  
  
“We have a much better story to tell than we have hitherto been telling.  To overcome this will require us to have better and more focused communication.   
  
“And we need to co-operate across the industry, to ensure the messages, opportunities and our achievements have maximum impact to enable us to compete with other high profile industries.”
  
Mr Meadows said a proposed National Skills Academy for Railways could be a positive step, “but it MUST cover all aspects of the industry, and not simply engineering, to support delivering a joined-up approach to promote the industry.”
  
He said there was also a need to be more involved in schools—“offering opportunities for case studies for curriculum activities enabling us to influence young people from those aged 11 upwards as well as their parents and their teachers.”
  
And there is a need to communicate more of rail’s achievements more effectively with the general public.  
 
 “We need to celebrate and publicise when our people are praised for doing their jobs well, or in voluntary activities that support the communities in which they live, as this helps to build a culture of engagement with our existing employees as well as helping to attract potential new recruits.
 
 “Having attracted people we must have the necessary training to encourage and facilitate their on-going personal development, including wider use of apprenticeships; retraining capacity for adults seeking new/second careers; rail-specific NVQs; foundation degrees and higher qualifications; Job Centre Plus; and up-skilling training providers to ensure levels of training meet the up-to-date needs of employers.”
  
Mr Meadows said: “There is an increasing recognition that with current low levels of unemployment there are skills shortages across the UK and for certain skills, notably engineering and operations skills, it could be argued even international shortages.
 
“Not only do these shortages cross a wide spectrum of sectors but employer demands are also increasing. For example, within the engineering field, where major shortages are forecast, rail is competing with other major industries such as power and construction.”
  
He added: “Before the recent downturn, forecasts for the construction industry were showing increasing output over the next 10 years. While the current economic conditions may offer a temporary respite and even the opportunity to attract people from other sectors to rail I do not believe that the downturn in the economy will be other than temporary.”
  
Mr Meadows explained that Transport for London and the Department for Transport have been undertaking a major study of skills needs, called Project Brunel, with a special focus on engineering capacity. 
  
“That study is likely to be completed in the next few weeks,” he said, “and will arguably for the first time provide an up-to-date assessment of the skills gap between what we have and what we need across all modes of transport in the South East.
 
“And whilst that study focuses specifically on the South East I believe there will undoubtedly be generic messages for the whole of the UK. In my view this will set out a massive challenge but also an opportunity for all of us.”