Maxine Joicey

Said the following about Helen Dawson:

“Helen Dawson has an incredible passion for helping people advance and develop. This year she’s created a partnership between Network Rail, Shipley College and Northern Railways and developed the ‘Get Into Rail Programme’. This is a joint initiative aimed at supporting unemployed people to enhance their employability skills.

The Programme lasts for three weeks and brings together classroom-based learning and work experience; attendees complete a Level 2 qualification in Customer Service, and spend 2 days work experience in Network Rail and 3 days with Northern Rail.

At the start of the programme design, Helen established a foundation that all parties recognised to be beneficial in delivering an experience that would welcome people onto the programme.

The programme foundation identified these as key controls and measures that would drive respect, honesty, integrity, and trust:

• Strategy design and stakeholder engagement

• Objectives, principles, vision, and goals

• Behaviours – Communicate, Respect, Trust, Honesty and always integrity.

By outlining key controls and measures it has provided an exceptional working relationship that has identified, developed, and allowed people to flourish with support. 38 people have taken part in the programme with 7 securing employment through the programme and a further 3 held in a talent pool awaiting vacancies. A success rate of over 26% in its first year is testament to its development and foundations.

Helen created a concept and implemented genuine change for supporting people into the industry. She developed a programme outside the normal recruitment pipeline, bringing people who are new to the railway into the role and investing in their training, development and more importantly their feeling of self-worth.

Helen used her leadership skills to act as a sponsor, helping people into or back into employment. This scheme has developed to an extent whereby another organisation has confirmed their participation in the next cohort and a further large organisation is considering its involvement; all providing work experience and the potential to secure employment within our industry. Helen is currently the sponsor of the programme, and due to the foundations she set in place, she has created a collaborative working process that provides a healthy partnership that she can be extremely proud of and it would be great to recognise the contribution that is measured through fulfilment of vacant roles and the testimonials including people involved who quite literally have turned their life around.

Pauline Holroyd, HR Director for Network Rail, said: “The work being done at Leeds Station with underprivileged and challenged young people is fantastic. I had a great time visiting and seeing the efforts to get these people into work and stabilise their lives was moving and inspirational.“