Network Rail

Network Rail runs, maintains and develops Britain’s rail infrastructure. Every day they get four million people to their destination and thousands of tonnes of goods moved around the country.

In 2005, Network Rail asked Babcock to develop their engineering apprenticeship programme. At the time it was localised and covered various aspects of engineering that didn’t meet all of Network Rail’s requirements, hence Network Rail wanted a provider capable of delivering consistent and relevant training to all their engineering apprentices, at one location and to a consistent standard.

Since then Babcock has worked hand-in-hand with Network Rail to develop a suite of apprenticeships that provide Network Rail with the competent, qualified and safely-focussed staff they need. This work has included transitioning apprenticeships from Frameworks to Standards, increasing cohort frequencies and numbers, and widening the range of apprenticeships offered. These now include Level 3 Engineering, Level 2 Infrastructure Operators (Signals), and a new Level 4 Rail Engineer programme launched in 2018.

The apprenticeships are based at the Network Rail facility in Westwood, Coventry, where apprentices live on-site for year one and enjoy extra-curricular activities including core fitness and pastoral care.

The programme delivers success and timely completion rates of 96% and 95% respectively and won the Semta ‘Best of British Engineering’ Training Partner of the Year award for 2016.