KEY POINTS:
- Education and skills should be treated like any supply chain
- Not getting through to the people rail needs to attract
- Link supply to demand
- Materials for skills development shoudl be more accessible
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Dear Patrick McLoughlin, Secretary of State for Transport:
Britain relies on rail. Britain needs a productive railway and a high-technology rail system. Our national rail and underground systems are complex, requiring more than 200,000 people to run the networks and provide the services.
The rail industry provides a good career, with the industry growing faster than many sectors and opportunities increasing. Staff turnover is low and many people work in the sector for their whole working life. The body of experience about the rail system is immense. But because a significant proportion of the current workforce will retire in the next ten years, the industry could lose much of this experience.
Rail is changing, however, and making a generational leap in the use of digital technology. The large investment in the network, the doubling of passenger numbers to record levels, and the application of new technologies in rail systems is imposing new demands on the number and type of skills needed.
Computerised traffic management systems, use of remote sensing technologies for asset and condition monitoring, communications technologies, smart systems (for example, ticketing), and the use of advanced materials and technologies in new trains - rail technology is catching up fast with other sectors. Rail is a high-technology service industry.
So the rail system, currently run by tens of thousands of highly experienced individuals, will evolve to embrace a knowledge-based, advanced technical workforce with high-level and transferable skills, defined by qualifications and supported by structured flexible learning.
Currently the rail industry has a low proportion (15% - National Skills Academy for Rail Engineering, 2012) of people qualified to Level 4 (HND equivalent) and above, compared with other technology-driven industries. The digital rail system will require a higher proportion of skills from Level 3 (A levels/National Diploma) and above. The Treasury Productivity Plan (July 2015) states that provision “needs to be re-focused to deliver the higher-level skills employers need” - and this is particularly true for rail.
From NSARE’s consultation with the industry for the National College for High Speed Rail (NCHSR), it was clear that employers want talented, committed, ‘rounded’ individuals with transferable skills, including leadership potential and commercial acumen as well as specialist technical knowledge. This requirement will widen the appeal of rail for people from all backgrounds (social and academic), and help improve the diversity of the rail workforce. The curriculum at the National Training Academy for Rail (NTAR), developed jointly by NSARE with Siemens, supports this approach in the traction and rolling stock sector of the industry.
In rail engineering alone (track, traction and rolling stock, signalling and telecoms, power) NSARE estimates that over the next five years the industry needs more than 3,000 new entrants at L3 and above to replace those leaving, plus a further 4,000 L4 advanced technicians to meet advanced technical demand.
And half of these need to be female if we are to double the current very low female proportion of the workforce to 10%. Add in the service and operations side of rail, and a further 3,000 L4 advanced technicians are needed.
That’s 10,000 over five years - 2,000 per year need L4+ technical skills to replace existing retirees and increase the proportion of higher skills in the industry. Additionally, it is estimated that HS2 will require at least a further 1,000 each year from 2019 onwards.
The Government recognises this demand. To support the National Infrastructure Plan, industry in general and the rail industry, it is increasing the number of apprenticeships. A levy is also being discussed on large employers to support up-skilling and apprenticeships.
The education and skills system should be like any other supply chain, meeting employers’ demands for people ready, willing and able to work, when required. However, the education and skills system has not worked effectively for many years in anticipating and ensuring that there are sufficient skills when required. Instead, the education and skills system tends to operate independently of market need.
Nor do market signals for volumes of new skills flow from the demand side (industry) to the supply side. So we have shortages. And the ‘batch’ production approach compounds the problem by providing a flood of ‘skills’ onto the market in June each year. The market for many advanced technical skills and the professions generally clears well through the university sector. Applicants to university anticipate growth sectors, and take up (and pay for) courses that will lead to high-growth sectors, providing those sectors with a ready supply of talent.
