Women in Trains day
Try The Train is an initiative run by Northern Rail.
Richard Isaac @northern & Paul Jackson @hulltrains jointly hosted a "Women In Trains" day in Hull recently.
Charlie Jerram - project lead at CTE Bradford Council invited us and any of our female Interns to attend.
This was an event to showcase and entice women into the train industry, particularly into driving.
Sarah, our intern joined other young women from Leeds & Bradford for a trip to Hull where we met Hannah Quinn, a driver for Northern trains. Hannah also trains the drivers.
Currently pregnant she was able to talk about the benefits of working for a large company with more than 2000 drivers, 13 different types of train and many different routes, where in Hull we were given the insider knowledge by Sam Hook, a train Driver for Hull trains with only 5 drivers, 1 type of train and 1 route.
Not only were we given information about the routes, training, benefits, roles & responsibilities, pay and much more, we were able to try the train simulator!
Hull has a high spec, state of the art simulator which is based on the actual route they take from Hull to London.
Sarah was the second person to go in our group and without the initial speech from the instructor she hopped on and took to it like a train to the rails!
She managed to focus the whole time she was driving. She even instructed Charlie Jerram with simple and factual instructions, and assisted to guide her hand when needed.
Sarah is neuro divergent and struggles with focus and instruction. It was inspiring to see her take to the simulator and master it in one go. Having said she wouldn't be able to learn to drive, Sarah is now rethinking this.
It just goes to show what work experience and Supported Internships can do. It opens up the world to someone who has had it narrowed for them.
Just like plants, when put in the right environment, people will flourish.
#trythetrain #WomenInRail #upskilling #UpskillForSuccess #trynewthings #inspiringwomen #supportedinternship #SupportintoWork #hull #bradford #westyorkshire #colemantrainingdevelopment #ctd #learningdisabilities #learningdifficluties #adhd #autism #neurodivergent #neurodiversity #diverseworkforce #northernrail