Opinion

Underpinning investment with training – the London Underground way

David Waboso says LU has recognised that you can’t outsource everything and growing its own people has to be at the core of the infrastructure business.

London Underground is investing billions of pounds in its network to replace life-expired infrastructure and also increase capacity, making journeys faster and more reliable. We’ve had massive programme underway since 2003 covering every line – the biggest in 60 years – to rebuild key stations, re-signal our lines, introduce new trains and replace and renew our track. This investment is vital to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population. But in order to deliver this, we need a parallel investment in highly skilled staff.

Like most other organisations in the infrastructure space, we have a large and growing need for good engineering and project management skills. One of the legacies of decades of under-investment in infrastructure is that our most valuable resource as an industry was also neglected – our people. It's hard to comprehend, but LU, like many other large infrastructure organisations at the time, actually stopped recruiting graduates and apprentices in what was seen as an era of out-sourcing "non-core" activities. Of course that has all changed, but like turning a super-tanker, it takes time.

"It's hard to comprehend, but LU, like many other large infrastructure organisations at the time, actually stopped recruiting graduates and apprentices in what was seen as an era of out-sourcing "non-core" activities. Of course that has all changed, but like turning a super-tanker, it takes time."

We start by engaging with young people as they are making decisions about what career or education to pursue. In partnership with the London Transport Museum, we run an ‘Engineering Ambassador’ programme, where our engineers go out to schools to excite young people about careers in engineering. It’s fantastic to see how interested school kids are in how the Tube is engineered.

We have reinstated our engineering graduate scheme – it’s an accredited training scheme which reflects the development objectives of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). Students can join the civil, electrical, electronic or mechanical engineering streams. These are three year programmes, working on a mix of projects across TfL. Graduates rotate through different roles to get a good all-round appreciation of the business and are mentored through their development by senior experts so there really is knowledge transfer. Whenever I talk to our graduates I’m inspired by their enthusiasm and imagination. 

We also have a number of engineering apprenticeship schemes that we offer, from an 18-month apprenticeship to three and four year advanced apprenticeship, which provide our young people with a mixture of both on-the-job and academic training. For many youngsters, apprenticeships can be a better option than university as they offer the opportunity to learn and earn, without the expense of university fees. 

Our apprentices gain the skills and knowledge required to become qualified in a range of disciplines from electrical fitters to signal technicians, train maintainers to escalator and lift technicians. Our track renewal engineering scheme was recently awarded the Apprenticeship Development Scheme Award at the 2014 UK Rail Industry Awards (UKRIA).

We also have a well established graduate scheme in project management and this year implemented an apprenticeship scheme in partnership with the Association of Project Management (APM). The apprentice scheme is fairly unique – in that only a handful of other employers currently offer apprenticeships in project management. We have also recently introduced a planning graduate scheme. There is an industry-wide shortage of planners – though it is a valued and well-paid career, it’s not one that young people usually know about. Our planning graduates get a basic understanding of project management, project planning, engineering principals and contracts. 

We recognise that training is an industry investment so we do accept that some of our people will move on to other things at the end of their training but most of our apprentices and graduates are offered permanent placements. 

So we are certainly not repeating past mistakes and one of the big advantages of sustained investment in infrastructure is it allows long-term planning and investment in skills to take place and that's precisely what we and other infrastructure clients are doing, which is great news for youngsters wanting a career in engineering projects.

 

David Waboso is London Underground's director of capital programmes