Work experience

[bhi156]

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am a Year 12 student currently studying towards A-Levels. I some mechanical engineering work experience on the railways, but I just don't know who to ask. Nobody really offers it, so I have to email the companies myself, but some are hard to contact e.g. Network Rail is impossible to contact for a careers related query - you can only make an application on their careers website for apprenticeships and jobs. I've asked TfL but I highly doubt that they'll say yes because they're a massive company. I'm going to give Network Rail a phone tomorrow, and I'll be phoning up Alstom too, as I can't get a contact down for them, either. Does anyone know anywhere else that I can get good work experience? I'm based near Birmingham (local stations being Solihull and Birmingham International). However, I'm able to relocate to London for the work experience as I have a relative there who I can stay with for the duration of the placement. This puts me in proximity of the major London termini, but I want actual offices/plants where I can actually see mechanical engineering. That's why I want to contact Alstom - they have a factory in Ilford. However, I'm really just running dry on the opportunities, and so I'd really be thankful for some advice on this.

 

[J3053B]

GTR Careers

We are the UK’s largest railway franchise, operating Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express.

gtrailwaycareers.com

Work Experience at Chiltern Railways | Chiltern Railways

www.chilternrailways.co.uk

 

[bhi156]

GTR Careers

We are the UK’s largest railway franchise, operating Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express.

gtrailwaycareers.com

Work Experience at Chiltern Railways | Chiltern Railways

www.chilternrailways.co.uk

To be honest, I was reluctant to contact TOCs because they don't really own the infrastructure and mechanical engineering is all about the infrastructure, but I'll give it a go. Thanks

 

[J3053B]

To be honest, I was reluctant to contact TOCs because they don't really own the infrastructure and mechanical engineering is all about the infrastructure, but I'll give it a go. Thanks

Tocs generally have engineering departments, infrastructure would be civil engineering generally.

 

[Horizon22]

To be honest, I was reluctant to contact TOCs because they don't really own the infrastructure and mechanical engineering is all about the infrastructure, but I'll give it a go. Thanks

There might be some work experience in depots that might be somewhat related with the fleet teams.

 

[DanNCL]

Some of the TOCs assign their work experience places through third party careers services who usually then assign those places directly to schools. I did secondary school work experience with Northern who at the time worked with a third party careers agency which then offered the placements to schools, I don't know if that's still the case or not as this was nearly a decade ago. From my end the process to get the placement was that the careers agency had supplied my school with a list of placements from all sorts of places and the students got to indicate a first preference and a second preference from that list; I put Northern down as my first preference with it being the only rail option available and I was lucky enough that nobody else at my school put it as their first preference so I got it.

I'd recommend the OP talks to their school/college's careers advisor or equivalent about this as they may be able to access work experience placements on the railway that aren't advertised on the standard external careers pages.

 

[Stuart-h]

Might be also worth while asking at your local station as well.

 

[ayaz2001]

u could always try heritage railways?