Tube Lines Limited
Name: Tube Lines
Address: Tube Lines Ltd, 15 Westferry Circus, London, Greater London, E14 4HD
Apprenticeship Award: Large Employer
Sector: Engineering (rail transport)
When Tube Lines started six years ago, it faced a serious shortage of skills. Since then, it has become the second largest employer of apprentices in London, with the intake for 2009 growing by 19 per cent. Through their training and development scheme they now boast a full complement of workers contributing to the improved reliability of the service, with delays down by 50 per cent overall.
In 2005, Tube Lines even went so far as to invest £10 million in a specialist Skills Training Centre in Stratford. The centre introduced state-of-the-art facilities including five full-size lengths of track to enable practical training on infrastructure, points and signalling. Four of these tracks are exact replicas of those currently used on the London Underground, with a fifth track allowing for training on the new systems being introduced by line upgrades. In addition, an interlocking machine room contains all the equipment needed to control each of the tracks.
Liza Okafor, Tubelines Apprentice Co-ordinator said: “Apprentices have become a highly valued part of our company and help us keep competitive in a tough recruitment market. We currently have 81 apprentices on the programme. Past and present apprentices account for 10 per cent of the company’s operational headcount. We have a retention rate of 97 per cent, which is well above the national average for railway operations.”
Tube Lines continue to encourage and nurture young talent through its successful and highly respected four year Apprenticeship programme and proactively recruit under-represented groups within engineering, such as females and ethnic minority groups. The Tubelines model has been so successful that they are helping one of their contractors implement an apprentice programme by assisting with the recruitment and management of apprentices.
Last Updated: 10/03/2010