UK: City of Wolverhampton College and its training partner National Infrastructure Solutions have taken over space at the Black Country Innovative Manufacturing Organisation’s Very Light Rail National Innovation Centre in Dudley, where they will train people in the construction and maintenance of railway and tramway infrastructure.
The site has more than 2 000 m of track, two split-level platforms, an 870 m tunnel and signalling components to give students hands-on experience working with the same equipment as is used on rail construction sites.
The opening of a Signalling Academy will further support the industry by addressing the skills gap in signalling specialisation and creating additional career paths for local people.
Rail training courses are available for newcomers to the sector, as well as those already working in the industry who want to expand their skills.
The centre will also offer free programmes to people who are registered as unemployed through a sector-based work academy programme. The six-week scheme funded by West Midlands Combined Authority will offer pre-employment training, on-site work experience and a guaranteed job interview with an industry employer looking to recruit new staff.
‘BCIMO’s role is to work with large and small organisations — including innovators, academia, policymakers and government departments — to help shape and accelerate the development of future technologies and industries’, said BCIMO Chief Executive Neil Fulton on September 8.
‘Essential to this is the up-skilling and re-skilling of future and existing rail workforces and the college’s presence on our site will help enable us to do that.’
