Great Jobs Podcast Episode 1: Addressing skills gaps and labour market shortages in the rail sector

Welcome to City & Guilds’ Great Jobs podcast series, hosted by Kirstie Donnelly MBE, CEO of City & Guilds. A monthly podcast in which she dives into some of the issues raised in our research report of the same name, produced in collaboration with economic modellers
Emsi Burning Glass.

The research found that despite key workers seeing the nation through the pandemic, the UK’s most vital industries are being threatened by growing skills shortages, as poor reputations and concerns about low pay turn off potential new recruits.

This episode explores the skills gaps and labour market shortages in the rail sector and what action needs to be taken to address these.

In this episode Kirstie is joined by: 

• Lorna Gibson, Training Director at QTS Training Ltd and Head of Women in Rail - Scotland
• Neil Robertson, CEO at National Skills Academy for Rail  
•  Alex Pond, Managing Director at Intertrain  

For further information about the material quoted in this episode visit:

• Routes Into Rail
• Great Jobs Report
• City & Guilds social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube

To hear more insights on the essential jobs that keep the UK moving, healthy and working, you can subscribe to the podcast.

Listeners may also be interested in a podcast series by the City & Guilds Foundation.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome
• 0:40 Great Jobs report: what did we uncover?
• 3:26 What motivated our guests to join the rail sector?
• 6:15 Attracting new talent into the rail sector
• 9:41 Rail jobs of the future
• 11:36 Increasing diversity in rail
• 14:39 The flexibility of the rail sector
• 20:21 Integrating prison rehabilitation into the rail sector
• 21:54 Mitigating the impact of Brexit and the pandemic
• 24:26 Magical wand solutions to tackle challenges in rail
• 25:55 Conclusion