27.09.12
NSARE to work with industry to improve training practices
NSARE chief executive Gil Howarth said there are a number of “issues of concern” with the state of railway engineering training and PTS sponsorship at the moment, including evidence of 'suspect' practices.
He said there were “unhealthy relationships” between some sponsors and training providers, and that several recent whistleblowing events had led to serious investigations by Network Rail.
Speaking to NSARE’s ‘Training Matters’ conference in Derby yesterday, Howarth said there are more than 10,000 people on the Sentinel system who have been ‘de-sponsored’.
He said 20% of PTS courses were being delivered by ‘suspect’ training providers. “We are going to eradicate this,” he said.
Improving the quality of railway engineering training provision is at the heart of NSARE’s mission. The vast majority of trainers and assessors were offering a good service, the conference heard, with lots of help available to get those rated ‘good’ up to ‘outstanding’.
Howarth also criticised webs of companies that were exploiting apprenticeship schemes just to draw down Government funding, with no intention of helping the young people concerned into long-term sustainable jobs.
He explained that since the Government stopped the Train To Gain scheme, which allowed companies to access funding to train people in qualifications, some companies have started to think of apprenticeships in the same way. He said there were “worrying signs” of people setting up two companies, an employment company and training company, aimed at getting people trained to the minimum standards and out onto the tracks as soon as possible, but ‘dispensed with’ if the work didn’t roll in.
“We’re not going to tolerate young people being treated as commodities,” Howarth said.
Despite this, the vast majority of apprenticeships in the rail industry are “exemplary”, he said.
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Image c. Ian Vernon (www.ianvernonphotography.co.uk)