Young people with an aptitude for engineering are being offered a help to construct career on the back of it.
Next Monday The National College for High-Speed Rail will open its doors. The College is offering a bursary scheme to provide financial support for young women, those from minority ethnic backgrounds and people living with disabilities.
The scheme will cover study costs applies to anyone starting immediately or in January 2018.
In total, the funding will be equivalent to 15 full-fee bursaries. Those behind the scheme hope it will tackle the lack of diversity in the industry.
The National College for High-Speed Rail is the largest of five new national colleges. The colleges have been created by to help ensure UK workers are able learn world-class skills.
While HS2 represents a cutting-edge engineering challenge; there is still a huge skills shortage to support it. The UK lacks 69,000 engineers a year and worse still, 1-in-5 rail engineers are over 55.
With more than £500billion of national infrastructure projects in Britain’s planning pipeline – including HS2 – this is a perfect time to begin learning the skills that our industry partners will require in the coming years and decades.
We’re excited to welcome our first intake of learners and keen that those who join us over the course of the year, no matter what their background, are equipped with the support they need to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.Clair Mowbray, chief executive of the National College for High Speed Rail
The college, based in a new campus on Lister Street allows students to study for a Certificate of Higher Education in High-Speed Rail and Infrastructure (Cert HE). Its first intake, this year, will be around 150 students. There are still places available to study this year or in January 2018.
The college’s bursary scheme has been set up with support from the Department for Transport and the High Speed and the Rail Industry Leaders (HSRIL) group.
Alongside the bursary scheme, the college will be offering a small number of sponsorships for female applicants. Those eligible must have performed well in either level 2 and 3 qualifications, or in the workplace.
To find out more about the bursary scheme and how to apply, click here.
