On Track for a Bright Future

By the end of this academic year, Platform will have delivered its bespoke careers education programme, ‘RailWAY’,  to 1,296 students in mainstream and specialist settings across its five Community Rail Partnership areas – and the bookings keep on coming.

Every group the team has worked with so far has, without exception, been blown away by the staggering number of careers the rail industry has to offer, from gateline assistants to signallers, drone pilots to graphic designers, police officers to engineers. Through a combination of slides, films, quizzes, discussion, table tasks, dressing-up and roleplay, students have gained valuable insight into the wealth of jobs at the station, on the train, on and around the tracks, and behind the scenes. Jobs that predominantly (or exclusively) fall within the latter location have resulted in some particularly incredulous reactions – much to the amusement and delight of Platform.

A key message in Platform’s sessions is the concept of personal strengths (broken down into skills and attributes) and the significant part these play in a person being effective in their chosen career. Students have enjoyed reflecting on their own strengths and areas for development, identifying the skills and attributes needed for different careers in the rail industry, and considering to which of the roles they have been introduced they might be best suited.

Naturally, rail safety has a high profile throughout any of Platform’s careers workshops, with jobs woven seamlessly throughout the delivery of key safety messages, such as how a dispatcher helps keep everyone safe on the platform and communicates with the driver when the train can depart.

Travelling by train to access education, training and work has also been an important message. For this part of the workshop, students have benefitted from bespoke slides of their nearest station/s and the destinations they can access from it.

Platform is extremely proud of RailWAY and looks forward to delivering more fun, informative and inspiring sessions for the remainder of this academic year and beyond.

The team would like to take this opportunity to thank GWR’s Customer and Community Improvement Fund for funding this initiative.

“The workshop was delivered really effectively. The children’s interest was captured and they were engaged throughout. A great balance of important safety information and career opportunities with lots of interactivity. It was fantastic!” Cotford St Luke Primary School, Somerset

“It was a great workshop. Very simple and clear. Great for children to see all the different jobs and try out the props which they loved. It was very engaging and accessible.” Victoria Park Primary School, Bristol

“Gave the children live action detail and examples of what jobs are available and what qualities you need. The pupils had to choose other children they thought had the qualities needed to be successful at the jobs. Really interactive and friendly team, the children were engaged throughout and had opportunities to get involved.” Wilden All Saints Primary School, Worcestershire

“This was such a great, interactive, learner centred workshop that I’d highly recommend to others. Our learners with SEND really enjoyed the workshop and the content had clearly been designed to meet their needs. Ellie the facilitator was fantastic and full of energy and knowledge. The pace of the workshop was great, the content, videos and presentation was well designed and accessible for our learners. Being able to dress up and role play the different job roles really worked well. Thank you for a great workshop and we look forward to having you back.” Darren Barber, Fairfield College, Dilton Marsh, Wiltshire

“I am really proud of RailWAY. Opening young people’s minds to the opportunities available to them in the rail industry, whilst also promoting rail travel and teaching them how to stay safe, is a real privilege. I hope Platform can continue to offer these workshops for many years to come.” Ellie Swain, Senior Learning Development Officer, Platform