Changing perceptions:
A rail industry collaboration at
the Big Bang Fair
The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair (The Big Bang Fair) is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) for young people in the UK. 14 - 17 March 2018 saw nearly 80,000 visitors (including around 55,000 young people) attend the Big Bang Fair at the NEC, Birmingham. Various organisations from the rail industry joined forces at the fair to promote the industry to young people and showcase the exciting and rewarding opportunities that exist in the sector.
“The Big Bang 2018 was a whirlwind of enthusiasm, excitement and interest from a range of children, teenagers, and their parents and teachers. All 4 days held a constant hive of activity. The variety of exhibitors in the fair as a whole was uplifting to see, demonstrating the variety of careers available to young people choosing a STEM career.
Our industry stand worked extremely well, with a good balance of high tech and hands on activities, drawing children onto the stand and keeping them involved for a good period of time. There was a fascinating difference in atmosphere between the week and weekend days, with children on the Saturday looking for more in-depth conversations with possible role models, spending more time on the stand. We’d love to do it again next year with our industry partners, bigger and better than ever before, and will be planning sooner rather than later for anyone who
would like to start getting involved.“
Lydia Fairman
Lead Capability and Development Manager
Digital Railway, Network Rail
At a time where the rail industry benefits from heavy infrastructure investment and offers a wide range of career opportunities, it faces the challenge of not being able to meet the current and future workforce demand. Future rail projects and programmes present challenges with skills shortages and skills gaps. These challenges are compounded by the changing profile of skills required, an ageing workforce, labour cost inflation, a lack of diversity in the workplace and the need to attract talent, all of which are key contributors to the stagnating productivity of the transport infrastructure sector. Recent research carried out by the industry image workstream of the
Rail Sector Skills Delivery Plan confirms and highlights some of the preconceived beliefs and the barriers to recruitment in our sector. These include the perception of rail as ‘not modern’ and ‘not innovative’, lack of promotion of STEM subjects in schools and a lack of knowledge about the opportunities in the rail industry.
“The industry has a critical skills gap that we are all working hard to address. We are proud to support events like the Big Bang fair as they are a fantastic way of reaching young people and showcasing the opportunities in STEM careers.”
Helen Townend
Technical Director for Diversity & Inclusion
Amey
This highlights the enormous role the rail sector has to play in promoting its brand and STEM learning to young people and their communities, to be able to compete in a competitive marketplace to attract the right people, with the right skills, at the right time. Joint collaborations are a great way to work and will undoubtedly amplify the promotional reach, create value through economies of scale whilst maintaining individual brands. Such events can help reach many young people and their influencers with the aim to change some of the preconceived views of the rail sector and expose them to opportunities in the sector. The Big Bang Fair is one such collaboration. Network Rail, HS2, Siemens and a number of other rail companies were already committed to representing at the Big Bang Fair 2018, however, the rail supply chain was under-represented. With coordination from the Routes into Rail Board and support from the Rail Supply Group and Network Rail, the National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR) was able to approach and get agreement from a number of key rail partners to bring a joint industry representation at the Big Bang Fair.
“IRO was really pleased to take part in the industry stand at Big Bang. We ran two age related competitions and had overwhelmingly positive response to them. We saw this, the first year as a way of learning how to interest young people in rail and we have already have interest from the other rail related institutions to come in with a multi profession offering next year. It was a great experience for our staff and the young people alike”
Fiona Tordoff
Chief Executive Officer
Institution of Railway Operators
NSAR, working with Network Rail, the Institution of Railway Operators (IRO), National Training Academy for Rail (NTAR), Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) and Amey joined forces to bring a rail industry representation at the Big Bag Fair, enabling engagement with young people using practical hands-on activities and latest interactive technologies used in the sector. In addition, participation and support for the event came from Year of Engineering, Pauley, Atkins, Siemens, Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), WISE and the Young Rail Professionals (YRP). Visitors also met with role models working in rail and engaged in career conversations. The 4-day event inspired young people, their
teachers and parents to be open about STEM learning and see the range of career opportunities in the rail sector. The event had great coverage on social media and included a visit from Stephen Metcalfe, the government envoy for the Year of Engineering.
“This was such a great week for Virgin Trains East Coast being a part of the Big Bang UK to promote technology, innovation and new ways of interactive learning to the hundreds of kids who attended. Working together as an industry showing what roles there are made the four days of madness very worthwhile.”
Vicki Havron
Stakeholder Engagement Manager
Virgin Trains East Coast
With millions of pounds of investments in the pipeline and ambitious objectives to achieve by 2020; 20,000 apprenticeships starts, 20% increase in BAME candidates and a 20% increase in female applicants, the industry must come together more often to be able to: - change rail industry perceptions
- attract the much needed diverse talent to the sector
- make people feel that the railway is a ‘place for them’ regardless of their race or gender
keep up with the pace of change to enable the industry to deliver a modern railway.
"It was fun to work with our colleagues from across The Railway. Our VR learning kit was a good conversation starter, and the constant stream of visitors meant we were able to give hundreds of students, teachers, and parents alike a very positive impression of working and developing in our industry.
Dan Walker
Head of Apprenticeship Delivery, NTAR
To collaborate with NSAR in future activities to promote the rail sector, please contact:
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