Skills Innovation of the Year

Network Rail Training receives prestigious Enginuity Skills Award

Caption: Homepage of the Dynamic Demand Planning Tool

Network Rail Training was commended for its innovation at last night’s (18 March) Enginuity Skills Awards following the launch of a new tool that creates a direct link between skills training and operational performance.

The Dynamic Demand Planning Tool won the prestigious ‘Skills Innovation of the Year’ award category and was recognised by a panel of industry judges for its pioneering use of data science, business intelligence, software development and Machine Learning to create a first of its kind, user-centric web-based app. 

Guy Wilmshurst-Smith, head of Network Rail Training, said: “We’re extremely grateful to all our routes and regions that have supported our work to create something that transforms the way the rail industry thinks about engineering competences and operational performance.

“We’ve been blown away by the support we’ve received to date and this is just the beginning. We’re working with teams across the country to develop new powerful insights linked to service-affecting failures and safety.”

With more than 3,000 unique competencies to account for, the tool is already able to map complex data sets, including asset inventory, delay minutes and fix times, to empower managers to accurately understand how their assets and teams are performing. The technology then helps managers identify the skills and competencies needed to maintain and improve the infrastructure.

Formally known as the SEMTA Skills Awards, yesterday’s virtual ceremony brought together industry leaders to recognise champions of skills development and the innovators tackling society’s biggest challenges. Network Rail Training was praised for its user-centric approach, having spent more than a year working closely with frontline teams responsible for creating training and skills development plans to ensure the technology taps into the right data and is effective and intuitive to use.

The tool is currently being developed even further to support more colleagues, such as those in stations, Operations and Capital Delivery.