So, how does your business deal with recruiting skilled personnel? Are you struggling?  Do you have to recruit from overseas? Well, you might be interested in the following facts which highlight the issues being faced by the rail industry today!

A report on rail skills by the City & Guilds & National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR) shows a clear picture for the UK’s rail workforce and points to a number of factors. These challenges highlight the importance of investing in people and skills. If the industry does not secure the skills it needs, it will put at risk the timelines for delivering to the Government’s planned infrastructure projects. Some key points of the report include:

• UK Rail has an ageing workforce and more than 28% of workers are over 50 years old.
• Nearly 50,000 rail industry employees are expected to retire by 2030.
• Up to 120,000 additional people will be required by 2030, with a demand for skills peaking around 2025.
• Modernising work practices and the use of digital technologies requires widespread upskilling of rail staff. Modernisation means that approximately 80 percent of the industry will require training over the next two decades. So, 200,000 workers will need new digital skills by 2030. 110,000 will need upskilling, 80,000 will need reskilling and 10,000 new apprenticeships will need to be created and resourced.
• The skills and people deficits being created by this combination of factors is already leading to high wage inflation.
• There is a shortage of training more apprentices. The top 10 skills gaps require recruiting 153,000 additional people between 2023 and 2030. NSAR analysis shows the bulk of these will need to be at levels 2, 3 and 4 – often best served by apprenticeships. 
• The impact of losing European workers after Brexit has been a factor which has contributed to a loss of labour and skills.

The skills and people deficits being created by this combination of factors is already leading to high wage inflation.