UK: ‘As an industry, we need to create opportunities to introduce graduates to the rail industry, including specific training courses’, believes Mark Bonner, Managing Director of York-based PBH Rail Group. The company works on rail projects for clients across the UK and internationally and employs 96 staff members across its Permanent Way, Systems Engineering, OLE, Survey and Civils divisions.
’At PBH, we believe that the answer to the skills gap lies in opportunity’, he said, adding that ’apprenticeships within the rail sector bring in new talent while providing hands-on training.’
The company said ‘despite innovation across the rail sector, the industry still faces a significant skills gap, with some of the main issues cited being an ageing workforce and industry perception. There is also a lack of educational entryways to the industry, and a lack of specific training courses that focus on each different aspect of rail for STEM graduates.’
PBH Rail Group has recently taken on Riley Rowan and Nicholas Gamov as apprentice Geospatial Survey Technicians within its Surveys division
They have joined on a two-year level three programme and will support the collection, processing and analysis of spatial data that underpins both rail and infrastructure projects, gaining on experience using total stations, GNSS and laser scanning equipment to capture accurate site data. They will also learn how to process and interpret the information to produce detailed digital models and drawings used across project lifecycles, from early design through to construction and maintenance.
Bonner said the two staff had ’joined the Surveys team at an exciting time’, with the company ‘currently trialling some new and exciting technology that will make the future of rail surveys more efficient’.
