L&MMR to provide training opportunities at Cynheidre

THE LLANELLI & Mynydd Mawr Railway has announced a partnership with the UK rail training company eyc.global to provide hands-on training at Cynheidre through a kickstart scheme to create job placements for 16– to 24-year-olds. Chris Jenson, who himself took up an apprenticeship when he was 20 years old and is now a fully qualified NVQ Rail Trainer and eyc. global’s Senior Training Manager, ran the first nine-day course at Cynheidre in March. He said: “I am just a bloke from Doncaster who took a gamble and it paid off. If you get the chance to do an apprenticeship at any time then do it – you don’t know what doors it might open.” The 11 individuals on the first course have all been offered jobs in the rail industry.

Kerry Verghese, Group Operations Manager at eyc. global commented: “The course that we run is the NVQ level 2 Diploma in Rail Engineering Track Maintenance. We only run our cohort if we know that we can guarantee a job at the end of the course. We could just do a Personal Track Safety course, without the NVQ, but we feel that you don’t gain the experience and confidence to go on to have a fulfilling career in the railway by just doing that.”

L&MMR Press Officer David Mee added: “The Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway is very pleased to offer its facilities in support of this very worthwhile scheme to help young people start careers in the rail industry. From our point of view it is a win-win situation as we get help to maintain the running line to a high standard and it helps with our preparations to reopen after the COVID-19 lockdown.”

All training is carried out in accordance with Government guidance on social distancing.