First Step Into Rail: Greater Anglia’s new scheme for unemployed young people will give 12 successful candidates skills to use in future jobs

Greater Anglia is offering unemployed young people an unpaid three-week placement to help get their job prospects back on track.

The ‘First Step Into Rail’ scheme will give 12 successful candidates skills to use in future jobs on the railway or in other industries.

The 18- to 25-year-olds will spend two days a week in a ‘classroom’ at Greater Anglia’s Stratford headquarters and three days at busy key stations.

The company, which runs about 1,300 trains a day to 134 stations in Hertfordshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk as well as London Liverpool Street, is looking for people who have good communication skills, are keen to learn, have a willingness to develop their skills and want to expand their CV.

Successful candidates will learn from customer service employees at stations. Staff from Central Training Group will teach softer skills and additional topics such as personal confidence and self-awareness, prejudice and discrimination awareness, unconscious bias and time management skills.

Viktorija Novikova, Greater Anglia’s early careers and apprenticeship manager, said: “We are excited to offer the new ‘First Step Into Rail’ scheme to the people in the communities we serve and provide them with a taste of what working on the railway is like at both our HQ and busy stations.”

Candidates will not be paid but will be reimbursed for expenses and receive free travel on the Greater Anglia network during their time with the company.

Applications close February 23 and the course begins March 3. See https://apply.greateranglia.co.uk/vacancies/11847/