National Apprenticeship Week: The Vital role of rail apprenticeships for building the future
For National Apprenticeship Week, we shine a spotlight on all things apprenticeships and highlight some of the great people involved in developing apprenticeship talent.
Vital Human Resources, part of the Morson Group, is the largest supplier of contingent labour to the UK rail network. Gary Hardaker, Executive Director at Vital, talks to us about why apprentices are an important part of the talent pipeline and how the business works to meet the demands of the industry:
How important to you and your organisation are your apprentices?
Our apprentices are the future of our organisation and the wider rail industry. Our hope is that they will be the ones leading the large infrastructure projects for years to come. We invest heavily in them and our programme as we know that building a talent pipeline for the future is important to the people and the business. I personally meet all our apprentices and champion them to our clients. We have high hopes for them and are looking to them to help drive our business forward for years to come.
How do you make sure they are prepared to meet the demands of the industry?
Working with our provider, Morson Training, our programme is built upon quality training and wide-ranging on-site experience. We know the training they receive is second to none and as employer and training provider, we work hand in hand to ensure that the apprentices have all the skills, knowledge and behaviours embedded in them to succeed, safely.
What are you most proud of about your programme?
In what has been a tough year for the whole country, I am proud that we have been able to keep moving forward and kept our apprentices on track. Not only have we ensured that our previous groups have completed successfully, but we have recruited in 2020 and will continue to recruit throughout 2021. Our commitment to having a fantastic apprenticeship programme in collaboration with Morson Training is unwavering and I look forward to seeing our current and future recruits flourish.
In September 2020, Morson Training took on 13 new rail apprentices who, upon completion of their course, will go on to become Vital operatives working on the Network Rail infrastructure.
Apprenticeships can have wide-ranging benefits for future career potential. Ammar, a Morson Training apprentice who was offered an apprenticeship as a means to turn his life around after a spell in prison, moved on from the rail industry into another engineering field but took with him the skills necessary to succeed.
Find out more about our award-winning rail apprenticeship scheme, Morson Training, here. To search for our latest jobs in rail, click here
