20.03.09
New Catalis training helps Ghurkhas get careers on the right track
Leading rail industry training provider Catalis Ltd has delivered a course to equip former Ghurkha combat engineers to work on the UK’s rail network.
The programme covers the essentials of a Personal Track Safety Course – a prerequisite of Network Rail for anyone who works on the tracks – and how their engineering skills honed for the battlefields can be transferred to trackside projects.
The training provided by Catalis is part of an integrated strategy with sister company Ganymede Solutions, to provide former Ghurkhas with the additional skills and safety training required, in order to join teams of labour maintaining the railways. Ganymede, like Catalis, is part of the RTC Group and specialises in contingent labour supply within safety critical environments for clients including those within rail maintenance and infrastructure projects.
Ganymede has covered the costs for the first course of ex-soldiers to go through this training and it is hoped as many as 400 could be working on projects by the end of the year.
At the start of the course, all candidates have to undergo full medical, drug and alcohol tests, crucial for those working within safety critical environments.
Working alongside a controller of site safety at all times, they then thoroughly cover the two main dangers of working trackside: trains and electrocution. This includes wearing personal protective equipment, essential safety checks, and understanding safe green zones and red zones.
“PTS and Track Induction are recognised as specific qualifications and comprise a series of tests including multiple choice, practical and written,” said trainer Mark Reardon (Training & Development Consultant & Assessor) at Catalis, based in Clapham.
“The practical test is an observation test where they go through a set of safety procedures. The Ghurkhas passed with flying colours. Out of the six who trained, two of them got just one response wrong while the rest received a 100% pass rate. The average is 90%.
“We were very impressed and all the Ghurkhas were very professional, precise and methodical.
“The next stage of the training will be a Track Induction Course where they will learn how to lay track and use tools commonly used on track projects. It will be a mix of practical work, emergency first aid, manual handling and a fire course.
“A key element is that the existing skills held by the Ghurkhas will be simply transferred. They already have the expertise to move into signalling and building bridges, which is why we developed this project in the first place.
“This course is a pioneering one and early indications are that we are going to help many hundreds of highly-trained Ghurkhas adapt their specialist skills to new roles once they come out of the forces.”
There are currently around 5,000 ex-Ghurkhas resident in the UK, based largely around 12 locations. Most now work in the security field, regardless of their specialism, as the engineers find it difficult to get employment in their own skill area. Around 15 to 30 per cent of those who have come out of the service could be interested in retraining for work of this type.
For more than 70 years, Catalis Ltd, formerly The College of Railway Technology, has been at the forefront of technical training for those employed within the rail industry in the UK and internationally.
Already one of the leading Link-up approved suppliers of flexible manpower solutions to the rail infrastructure industry, Ganymede provides rail customers with a unique blend of skilled, experienced and well-trained personnel.
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