Network Rail has hired its first dedicated head of apprenticeships.
Newstarter Richard Turner joins from Virgin Trains where he was responsible for the company’s training and development as well as its talent academy in Crewe.
He will now oversee Network Rail’s entire range of 40 apprenticeships and its graduate programmes to help recruit and train the rail professionals of tomorrow.
Richard said: “Network Rail has a long history of running great apprenticeship and graduate programmes, and our early careers offering is only going to increase over the next few years.
“My role will be about giving some of that growth direction, to work with business areas and industry partners to create exciting career paths for future railway professionals, and to make sure our apprentices get the best possible experience they can have.
“We need to be recruiting and training apprentices today so that they’re ready to maintain and operate tomorrow’s railway.”
