A group of our year 9 students enjoyed an interesting morning this week at Midland Railway, Ripley, learning about the rail industry and the innovation that underpins it.
Hosted by the QTS Group, one of the UK’s leading rail contractors, with a base in Linby, the event gave students invaluable insight into the breadth of careers and opportunities available to them within the rail sector.
Students were able to see state-of-the-art machinery and technology in action, take part in interactive tasks, and meet some of the young people employed by the company; who explained what their roles were and how they accessed those jobs.
Feedback from our students was very positive and included:
“The event was good because it gave us an insight into railway network careers.”
“It was informative and interesting.”
“It was really good and very interesting.”
Students were engaged throughout and represented themselves and the academy beautifully!
Mrs McKenna, who led the trip, said of the experience: “It was so interesting hearing from the different staff involved in the railway industry; from apprentices to long-serving staff who have seen many changes, from people with no qualifications to people with degrees. The students engaged really positively with the staff and gained a great insight into the industry.
“You can’t aspire to be a quantity surveyor unless you know what that is and I think students now have more ideas about the different opportunities. I think the highlight for me was seeing how technology is used to map out the areas and particularly the drone, which certainly captured the students’ imagination!
“This is one of many opportunities we offer to students as part of our comprehensive careers programme, providing them with hands-on experiences working with people from a range of sectors.”
