Industry Social Mobility Programme
“We will make rail a route to progress — changing lives by opening opportunities for individuals and communities across the country.”
Rail keeps the UK moving. Trains help people get to work, school, hospital visits, and family. The railway boosts the UK economy and supports thousands of jobs.
We run trains in every corner of the country, so people can get a reliable job on the railway wherever they live in the UK. However, we know that we aren’t perfect. To make our services better for passengers, we need more people with different skills, backgrounds and life experiences to come and work for us.
We are an integral part of the fabric of British communities. And we want the railway to be a place that gives people chances, that truly meets people where they are, with jobs that work for people, as much as they work for us.
Our Industry Social Mobility Programme is working across the industry to widen access to rail careers, and ensuring that background is never a barrier to opportunity.
We will make rail a route to progress, changing lives by opening opportunities for individuals and communities across the country, so that no one gets left behind.
This programme is co-sponsored by Steve White, Managing Director at Southeastern and Paul Rutter, Route Director, East Coast at Network Rail.
What is Social Mobility
Social mobility is the link between a person’s occupation or income and the occupation or income of their parents.
Where there is a strong link, there is a lower level of social mobility. Where there is a weak link, there is a higher level of social mobility. For example, if you have a professional occupation and your parents had a working-class occupation, you have experienced upward occupational mobility. If you have a high income and your parents had a low income, you have experienced upward income mobility.
Our programme aims to support people from all backgrounds and walks of life to access and grow thriving careers in rail.
Our Structure
To help us on this journey, we are structured into three key groups who are driving forward the changes we want to see.
Our Industry Social Mobility Steering Group – senior industry leaders who advocate for change, provide thought leadership and help remove barriers to our success
Industry Social Mobility Working group – industry subject matter experts, who deliver initiatives supporting social mobility, create plans to scale up our progress, identify barriers and develop solutions to enable social mobility
Beyond Barriers – a community of rail industry colleagues from less advantaged backgrounds and allies, who provide a safe space for colleagues to talk about shared challenges and advocate for industry change by representing their members’ needs.
Across the programme, our work falls into 5 main areas:
Achievements so far
Ran two industry-wide, week-long work experience programmes, targeting schools that fall above the national average for pupil premium in Birmingham. In total 40 young people gained improved access to career opportunities and understanding the industry.
Officially launched our pre-apprenticeship pathway for the Level 3 rail engineering technician apprenticeship, aimed at young people seeking education or training opportunities (NEETs). The pilot is taking place in Enfield London which is an area with great diversity and high deprivation rates.
Delivered ‘Next Stop – Your Future’ industry-wide career development programme in 2024, including people from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds. One third of participants made career progression moves. A second cohort of ‘Next Stop – Your Future’ is taking place in 2026 including people from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds with participants already providing positive feedback about the programme.
Beyond Barriers successfully delivered the first industry event marking Social Mobility Day in collaboration with Rail Unites for Inclusion, with the event marking a recognition of this challenge for the industry. With 50 in person attendees and 80 virtual, feedback was overwhelmingly positive. A leadership team is in place and plans for the year ahead are developed. The network now has over 300 members across 50 rail industry organisations.
Find out more about Beyond Barriers below: