Apprenticeships to get transport industry moving
A new scheme to create 30,000 apprenticeships across the road and rail industries was today announced by Government, during a visit to Northampton.
Speaking on a visit to the National Training Academy for Rail in Kings Heath, Northampton the Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin, announced the ambition in a vital boost to the transport industry.
Government has committed more than £70 billion to improving transport infrastructure, including the most ambitious investment in rail since the Victorian era, and the most extensive improvements to roads since the 1970s. This investment will make journeys better. It will also deliver a sustained and lasting legacy of skills and opportunity for people across theUK.
Patrick McLoughlin said: “Training our rail and road workforce is essential if we want to build a transport network fit for the future.
“I want to see every part of Britain benefiting from a growing economy and that is why our investment in transport won’t just help people get around, it will help them get on.”
The skills strategy will set out how government and industry will:
- deliver on its ambition for 30,000 apprenticeships in roads and rail over the next five years to 2020, working together with supply chain partners
- ensure the right mix of apprenticeships are on offer, including many at higher levels with training in new technologies
- explore upskilling the existing workforce to meet new challenges
- encourage greater diversity in the workforce, including attracting more women into engineering
- develop a co-ordinated national network of transport infrastructure skills colleges to train the transport workers of the future
David Mackintosh said: “Making sure young people have the skills they need is a key part of our long-term economic plan for Britain. Here in Northampton, we are putting apprenticeships at the forefront of that plan.
“It’s vital that we develop the workforce of the future, ensuring the transport industry has the right people in the right place at the right time, and crucially with the right skills, to deliver this unprecedented programme of infrastructure work.”
Across the country government and industry are investing to deliver the skills the industry needs. This includes the opening this autumn of the National Training Academy for Rail (NTAR) in Northampton — a joint venture between Siemens and the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering (NSARE), co-funded by government.
The academy will boost expertise and skills levels in rail engineering. Thousands of young people will gain vital training in specialist traction and rolling stock and many others will learn the skills they need to respond to new technology in the UK rail industry.
