New generation of HS2 engineers shows city on right track

High Speed Rail near Aston University opened its doors, along with its sister college in Doncaster.

These cutting-edge colleges have welcomed their first wave of students who are already well on their way to learning the high-tech skills which are needed to design, build and maintain HS2, a railway that will be significantly different from Britain’s conventional railways in so many ways.

Meanwhile, at HS2’s main offices in Birmingham and London, and throughout our supply chain partners, scores of apprenticeships have started - the first of 2,000 that will be created over the life of the project.

It couldn’t come at a more important time.

With some 25 per cent of engineers in the rail industry looking to retire in the next ten years, we need to secure the talent and skills to replace them which is why we are so committed to such an extensive apprenticeship programme.

The major contracts we signed last summer to begin construction of the route from London to Birmingham will support some 14,000 jobs and operating the railway when it’s complete will generate another 3,000 jobs.

Already at our HQ in the heart of Birmingham, we employ more than 700 people and there will be thousands more opportunities for people right across the West Midlands and throughout the UK, giving people of all ages the training they need to enter a growing and exciting industry and be part of one of the largest and most exciting infrastructure projects in the world.

Having started my own career as a railway technician apprentice, it has been great to spend time with our 25 new recruits.

I was taken by how diverse a group they are, from many different backgrounds, ages 17 to 52, men and women, from all over the country, including here in the West Midlands.

They represent a bright and diverse future for our industry and the region.

The next year will see even more progress on our goal to create a highspeed rail skills revolution - and Birmingham will, of course, be at its epicentre.

By the time we get to the next National Apprentice Week in 2019, main works construction on HS2 will be under way and the search will be on for even more skilled people as well as those wanting to learn, as they join us on the next phase of our exciting journey, bringing new opportunities, new growth and new careers to this city, and the region. Mark Thurston is chief

executive of HS2

The major contracts we signed will support some 14,000 jobs