Thank you to everyone who joined us for our AGM and Skills Symposium at the end of November. It was fantastic to see so many of you and discuss our shared work and opportunities for collaboration. A special thanks to our insightful speakers – it is encouraging to hear about valuable work being carried out by our members and partners. Their presentations provided food for thought.
A highlight of the day was the release of our Annual Workforce Survey 2024. This crucial work helps industry and government understand current and future workforce gaps, enabling the development of strategic plans to address them. The team’s hard work has resulted in our best report yet. Thank you to Lord Hendy for his insightful foreword.
The data will continue to be analysed and fed into our refreshed NSAR strategy – as will input and advice from our members. Look out for upcoming consultation events. Additionally, we will be thinking about the insights from the data report and our members and how this relates to the wider skills strategy.
We were also thrilled to announce the appointment of our new Board Chair, Mary Grant. Mary is CEO of Porterbrook and has 30 years’ experience in the UK and international transport sector. The Board and I are delighted that someone of Mary’s calibre will be leading NSAR as we work to support the industry through reform and skills challenges. She is already getting stuck in and making an impact. I extend my sincere thanks to Dyan Perry OBE who has led the NSAR Board since 2020 and played an integral role in developing NSAR’s services and expertise in support of the rail industry and beyond.
2024 has been a great year for NSAR and I would like to thank all our members, partners and clients. Here are some of the highlights from this year:
- Launching Apprenticeship Agency, our new service as a designated flexi-job apprenticeship agency – part of our commitment to support rail to increase apprenticeships. Employed 20 apprentices, placed with 14 host organisations.
- Used our data analysis and workforce planning expertise to collaborate on more than 30 reports and data reviews, informing various organisations on skills shortages, social value and the importance of workforce planning.
- Continued to assure the quality of rail training – as evidenced by 150 assurance visits and 19 closed investigations. In 2024, The Quality Assurance team continued to listen to feedback from training providers and made changes to assurance visit processes that allow for a more supportive approach.
- Established a dedicated policy and engagement function to leverage our unique access to industry data, making the case for delivering a skilled rail workforce to government and policymakers.
- Continued to lead the Routes into Rail initiative on behalf of the rail industry by promoting rail careers and opportunities to various audiences, including 450,000+ students.
All NSAR’s work is done in partnership. Thank you to you – our members, partners and clients – for your ongoing support. I look forward to working with you again in 2025.
Neil Robertson
NSAR Chief Executive