Rail trainer Silver Track set to expand in Nottingham

ATRAINING company is to open a new centre with the aim of turning jobless people into apprentices for the rail industry.

Silver Track Training says it expects to put 160 apprentices through a series of training programmes at its new facility, based at the National Rail Heritage Centre at Ruddington.

The firm hopes that its new centre will recruit people from among the long-term unemployed and those who have recently lost their jobs.

It also plans to use its new Nottingham operation as both its national headquarters and a specialist centre for a particular type of rail industry training.

Silver Track, which is run by a team which has previously worked in the industry, is currently based in Wigan but plans to move its headquarters to Nottingham.

The firm's business development manager, James Nash, told Business Post: "Our expansion plans are going to be quite dramatic because there is a massive need for what we do in the rail industry.

"Nottingham is the first of five centres we will be opening this year and we will be moving our headquarters here. We took a strategic decision to try to work with the long-term unemployed and also people who are recently out of work.

"We are training people to work track side in the industry and we are particularly interested to hear from people who might have worked in the construction industry because we believe they have a lot of transferable skills."

Mr Nash added: "We think Nottingham is ideal for us.

"The road and rail links are good, the East Midlands is a centre for rail engineering and it's a good location for us to develop what we do."

The rail industry is one of the largest employers in the UK with over 160,000 people employed in a variety of posts.

With high profile projects such as Cross Rail, High Speed One – and, locally, the development of two new tram lines in Nottingham – Silver Track believes there will be a high demand for people with the relevant skills to meet the demand of an expanding network.

Silver Track's decision to open a Nottingham operation has been welcomed by Nottingham City Council, which believes there is significant potential for expansion in rail engineering.

Coun Jon Collins, leader of the council, said "With such high growth predicted in the rail sector we hope working with Silver Track will provide many opportunities for local people to obtain new skills and take advantage of the employment opportunities both locally and nationally."