Kate Anderson

Said the following about Anne-Marie Masterton:

“I would like to nominate Anne-Marie Masterton for her commitment and championing of Career Ready, a national charity whose purpose is to support the social inclusion and mobility of young people (school age S5/S6) through a mentoring programme.

In November 2022 Anne-Marie signed up as a mentor to support young people in developing the skills, confidence and experience needed to kickstart their future during a 2 year programme. Every 4 weeks Anne-Marie meets the young person in our Glasgow office and provides support and coaching by listening, providing guidance and sharing her own insights and experience. The relationship between a mentor/young person is a key part of the programme and Anne-Marie has used her caring, empathetic and encouraging skills to form a strong and trusting relationship with her young person, making him feel at ease and able to share his own opinions and ask questions.

The programme also includes a paid 4-week summer workplace internship, Anne-Marie arranged a fantastic 4 week programme for her young person at the end of June 2023 which involved them spending time with Anne-Marie and the wider team learning about Project Management, and time with various other different departments finding out about their role, providing invaluable exposure to all different elements of the rail industry. The young person was also given a number of tasks to complete over the 4 weeks and on their last day delivered a presentation on the internship experience. The difference in the young person during the 4-weeks was significant, he finished the internship with more confidence, self-belief, and enthusiasm for all the different roles and opportunities within Network Rail which is an absolute credit to Anne-Marie.

Anne-Marie is now encouraging other colleagues to consider volunteering as a mentor, sharing her positive and rewarding experience on Network Rail’s internal platform Viva Engage and accepting invitations to attend team meetings to talk about the programme and how others can get involved.“