11.04.14
Marathon effort raises £600 for rail charity
Nearly £600 has been raised for the UK Rail Industry Training Trust (UKRITT) by a dedicated team of Rail Technology Magazine (RTM) marathon runners.
The team of four athletes took part in the Corporate Relay Manchester Marathon, raising £580 after completing the 26-mile course in 3hrs 40min.
Patrick Bowley, business development executive at RTM, had always wanted to get into running and was thrilled at the opportunity to take part in the event.
He said: “Part of our 10 commandments of Cognitive Publishing is ‘thou shalt work together as a team’. I trust my teammates at work, so what better way to demonstrate than to do the Corporate Relay Manchester Marathon with teammates you can rely on. We set ourselves a challenge and target; and smashed it.”
All the long hours of training were for the sake of UKRITT, a charity launched by RTM last year, which is successfully getting young people excited and inspired by the idea of a future career in rail.
One of UKRITT’s main aims is to tackle the future challenge of an ageing and, in many cases, retiring rail industry workforce – where there seems to be a considerable skills gap across the country. In an attempt to tackle this issue, UKRITT reaches out to 11-19 year olds across the country through its national 'Gen Y Rail' competition which inspires students to consider a career in the rail industry through education, engagement, innovation and STEM.
RTM.jobs business development executive Jonny Berry added: “UKRITT is an important charity to the rail industry, without its continued support to promoting the wide and diverse career opportunities there wouldn’t be a workforce capable of delivering our future projects. I jumped at the chance to be part of such event.”
And, although the marathon was in aid of a good cause, it wasn’t always straightforward for the team as Neil Butcher, RTMjobs.com business development executive, revealed: “The winter training wasn’t the best; motivating yourself to go out in all conditions was tough at times. But to be honest it was well worth it in the end. The whole team gave 110% and did really well, so the hard work paid off.”
Since its launch in May 2013, UKRITT has raised £96,376.35, including the £580 raised in sponsorship from friends, family and colleagues for the Corporate Relay Manchester Marathon.
Roy C Rowlands, business development director at RTM and one of the marathon runners, said the charity is hugely beneficial to the industry but more importantly to the thousands of students it engages with via ‘Gen Y Rail’.
'Gen Y Rail' comprises a series of regional heats across the country culminating in a national final. At each event, students are split into teams and given a rail engineering challenge to solve, after which they present their solutions to a Dragons’ Den-style panel of rail industry judges. One team from each age group from each region will be put through to a national final, and the winning team from each age group will be crowned 'UK Champions'. Students also receive the British Science Association CREST Discovery Award for their participation in Gen Y Rail activities.
The first Gen Y Rail event was held in the North East on 13 February – you can see RTM’s report here.
Rowlands added: “The charity is developing extremely well and has received a huge level of support from the rail industry, notably Network Rail, which has donated its Westwood training facility to host the West Midlands leg of the competition as well as the national final.
“Additionally, Sir Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester City Council, has backed the charity by giving it the Great Hall, a venue within the council’s Town Hall, to host the North West leg of the competition.
“Even director general of the Rail Executive at the Department for Transport, Clare Moriarty, recently tweeted to say she had heard about ‘Gen Y Rail’ at the STEM festival and said it ‘sounded great’.”
But there is still more to come in the future, said Rowlands: “The charity has lots of ideas in the pipeline that it is looking at launching later in the year.”
(Marathon runners, from left: Jonny Berry, RTM.jobs business development executive; Patrick Bowley, business development executive at RTM; Roy C Rowlands, business development director at RTM; and Neil Butcher, RTMjobs.com business development executive)
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