Hannah Crowley

Said the following about ntrs training team:

“The NTRS training team – Linbrooke Services’ training division – have demonstrated an unparalleled dedication to bridging the industry’s skills gap through “providing national engineering and technical education that recognises the unique potential of each candidate, accelerates learning and personal growth, and lends a shared sense of purpose in building successful and rewarding careers.”

As a multi-disciplinary training team that functions as a family-like unit and a well-oiled training machine, our team have trained circa 18000 individuals over the last 10 years and have seen a subsequent 90% of graduates through into employment within the rail industry. Committed to quality in all that they do, NTRS are about more than simply delivering government accredited qualifications - they are dedicated to seeing as many candidates as possible transition smoothly and efficiently into working life. Made up of 67% former services personnel, each trainer emulates and exploits the military values of loyalty, dedication, perseverance and strength, and as such they demonstrate a strong investment in each protégé. This makes for the best soldiers, the best trainers – and the best engineers.

With the team honing their combined 160 years’ worth of expertise through the aid of our National Training Academy (NTA), they are working in the opportune setting with the ideal equipment in which to magnify their potential. With an ‘aging workforce’ and the ‘demand for signalling testers being at an all-time high’, the National Training Academy is primarily geared up for providing training for signalling works testing. The site’s authentic platform and tracks incorporate various styles of signals, point operating equipment and train detection and protection equipment. These provide a realistic and accessible set-up for safe and practical training from basic appreciation right through to high-level modular testing competence. In order to enhance the learning experience, the signalling facility also incorporates associated power and communications equipment. Our training team – particularly Mike Smith – helped to design this facility in order to ensure they could provide the best training possible to elevate the industry to a deserved and secure eminence.

After hearing about the NTA, Patrick McLoughlin, Secretary of State for Transport said that “in order to build a world-class rail network, you need a world-class workforce – and with an engineering industry that is recognised around the globe, South Yorkshire is the perfect home for the Trackside National Training Academy.

As part of our long-term economic plan, we are investing record amounts in the UK’s railways. By generating jobs and training opportunities, this new academy will ensure…a lasting skills legacy for the future."

Also providing a plethora of courses designed to up skill clients, in-house employees and the trainers themselves, the NTRS training team focuses on assisting others to be the very best they can. This way they are not only supplementing the bridging of the industrial skills gap, but they are ensuring they are bringing a fresh surge of high calibre individuals into the industry and consequently improving the commerce as a whole.

According to the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering, there is a forecasted peak in engineering shortages – predicted to hit the hardest around 2016/17. Creeping ever closer, this is likely to affect the whole rail industry - predominantly in the signalling division - and successively the whole country. With the NTRS team made up of 6 elite industry experts, including Mike Smith – one of the few men in the UK certified to train MOD 1 through to MOD 5 signalling Tester in Charge courses – they are proficiently placed to have a massively advantageous effect on the entirety of the commerce.

A combination of heritage and traditional equipment, as well as the flashing aspects associated with high-speed turnouts, provides the ability to offer more than just theoretical and on-par practical training, it allows our trainers to continue to supply the lasting skills legacy spoken of by our government - with a predominant focus on signalling.

Operating under the NTRS banner, a wide variety of ‘off the shelf’ and bespoke courses are delivered by the NTRS team, covering all aspects of rail power, telecoms and signalling. Indications are that the academy will see a steady influx of fresh apprentices and trainees as well as industry organisations looking to up skill their workforces.

Over the next three to five years, Linbrooke and NTRS intend to register 100 apprentices from the local community alone – with others travelling from further afield to take advantage of the NTA and trainers’ expertise. In order to enable such an ambition, the team have ventured out of their comfort zones and attended open days, facilitated school trips and networked with a number of clients in order to market their services. This has resulted in a multitude of clients undertaking various courses, upskilling their teams, and beginning to bridge the skills gap within the industry.

Following their own examples, our 6-person team have involved themselves in as much self-improvement as possible. Tracey, former operator in the Royal Signals and current telecommunications expert, has undertaken signalling training in order to widen her knowledge and ensure she has as much to offer her trainees as possible. She intentionally selected signalling as a means to begin simultaneously addressing the signalling shortage.

Our trainers also deliver a high amount of military resettlement programmes, ensuring that our future engineers are made up of a strong, disciplined workforce. Assistant Delivery Engineer and former Royal Marine, Paul Wildgoose said, “the course was a fantastic insight into both telecommunications and fibre optics. I particularly enjoyed the practical aspect of the course – the show and tell sessions throughout the theory sessions were brilliant.”

With 100% positive feedback from all trainees, “NTRS conducted the training brilliantly and to the expected standard. Beginning from the first week and continuing until the end. The courses and the instructions were outstanding.”“