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Here at AW Rail, we recognise the need to enthuse the next generation to look at careers within the rail industry. Last week we had the pleasure of inviting a student from Harvey Grammar School into our offices for some work experience to witness firsthand the wide range of jobs that go into keeping the nations rail infrastructure safe and well maintained.

After some careful assessments were undertaken to ensure the students safety here at our offices, at our yard and whilst out on site, all undertaken by our dedicated HSE Manager Ian Purdie, Jerzy gave us an unabridged account of his time here. As he freely admits he still has no idea what he wants to do when he leaves school, but hopefully we gave him an insight and food for thought about his future.

“Before work experience, I was unsure whether it would good or interesting as I was unsure who AW were and what they did.

During my time I completed many different tasks in very different environments.

I started by working in the office with one of many of the PMs at AW Rail on a project that involved ‘Bridgeway’, this taught me what a QS is, what they do, and the type of projects they work on. This was interesting as there was much more to the job than I expected, and it gave me an insight to quantity surveying.

I was then set tasks by the Rail Manager on Atlas (Training platform) where I learn a great number of skills that I can take away from this and use later in life such as safety of working at heights and COSHH awareness.

The next day I went on a site trip with one of the PMs to Tonbridge, the job was repairing/ keeping the railway bridge in good condition. This allowed me to meet many people with different professions in the same industry to give an understand of possible future jobs such as project management. During this I went up in a Boom Lift and became a professional bricklayer by laying a single brick in the bridge. This was quite enjoyable due to using the tools and machinery but also useful as it again opened door to future ideas.

My Last big job of the week was when I joined the Stores Manager at the AW yard. I loaded vans with tower scaffolding and other essentials that would be used in the jobs organised by the QS. Despite the heavy on and off down pour, I found my time spent their very valuable as I learnt many practical skills that will help in my current job and future jobs.

Overall, I really enjoyed my week at AW Rail as not only are they a great group of people with a good sense of humour they shared their time and their skills with me, giving me a proper insight to the world of work in this industry and allowing me to take many skills and thoughts with me,

Understanding of Quantity Surveying and Project Management, Safety within the Workplace, Working at Height, basic first aid and how to lay a brick.”

Jerzy Krzyszka – Harvey Grammar School.

Thanks to the AW Rail Team who took the time to mentor Jerzy during his week here. Tom Galbraith, Jason Stokes, Anthony Buckley, Ryan Nash & Dale Harris.