Transport for London’s Commissioner Mike Brown has urged more young women and black and ethnic minority candidates to step forward and consider a career in the sector.

 

Speaking at an apprentice recruitment fair at City Hall last Thursday Mike Brown said: “For far too long we have been too under represented in some communities. Our success depends on being able to access every single part of the labour market going forward.”

 

Last week Transport for London said it has created more than 175 apprenticeship positions this year, up by around 30 on 2016. Several other clients in the sector have also been promoting their recruitment ambitions to coincide with National Apprenticeship Week, which concluded on Friday.

 

They include Highways England, which has committed to recruiting a further 90 apprentices over the next seven months. On the A14 construction scheme between Cambridge and Huntingdon the first in a series of pre-apprenticeship courses have been offered to help unemployed candidates understand more fully what a career in construction could offer.

 

Highways England legacy lead for the A14 scheme Gerard Smith said: “The A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme is Highways England’s biggest project currently in construction. We want to give people the opportunity to help us deliver this complex project and gain a career for life as a result.

 

“So it makes good sense for us to offer unemployed people locally the chance to learn while they earn via training courses and apprenticeship programmes.”

 

And at Network Rail a team of apprentices, work experience students and engineers from the Thameslink programme visited schools local to London Bridge station to inspire young people to consider an apprenticeship on the railway.

 

Last Monday the team visited Octavia House, a specialist therapeutic school that provides innovative educational provision for pupils with social, emotional and mental health difficulties, to talk about the role of an apprentice to a group of 15 and 16 year olds. The team also presented to 180 students at the Walworth Academy, where Thameslink apprentices and work experience students from Costain shared their journeys and experiences.

 

Network Rail consents manager for London Bridge station Annamarie Compton said: “What makes our programme work so well is the continued support of our own apprentices, many of whom have been employed from the local area, who are taking the time to participate in a number of school visits and site activities to share their journeys and to display the skills they have learned.”

 

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(Photo: Transport for London)