The RailStaff Awards 2024

Susan Fishwick

South Western Railway

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Richard Weaver

Said the following about Susan Fishwick:

“Susan has been fundamental in the success of South Western Railway’s partnership with the Prince’s Trust. The ‘Get into’ initiative with the Trust offers a four-week customer experience training programme for young people across its network, aged 18-30 and not in employment, education or training.

As the training lead for the programme, the candidates are put under Susan’s care for their first two weeks. It’s Susan’s role to put them at ease, help them grow in confidence and start to develop their skills. This is a role Susan performs with a great deal of passion and energy, ensuring the young people are ready for the next step of two weeks work experience at SWR’s stations.

While Susan was already an experienced customer experience trainer, and long-standing member of the SWR team, training younger people was completely new to her. She had the additional challenge of working away from her home base in Basingstoke and having to adapt to new environments in London and Southampton.

These were challenges she embraced wholeheartedly working with enthusiasm and making sure the youngsters were able to make the most of the opportunity and develop their skills in a safe and supportive environment. She adapted the training to make it more appealing to their age group and made sure they were in a good place to put themselves forward for roles at the end of the programme. Out of the twenty-five students that have completed the programme so far, six have already been appointed to roles within South Western Railway such as Customer Service Assistants on the Gateline and Train Dispatch on the platforms and are proving to be valued members of the team. Others have gained employment elsewhere or gone onto further education or training programme.

The partnership with the Prince’s Trust is now in its fourth wave and has proved extremely valuable for both the youngsters involved and for South Western Railway and Susan has been central to this.“