Graduate recruitment at Network Rail: 'Fishing in a finite pool of talent'

With a 'demographic time bomb' potentially creating a future skills shortage, Executive Grapevine spoke to Network Rail about the challenges they face when recruiting graduates or apprenticeships.  

Alasdair Waddell, Resourcing Attraction Manager at Network Rail, said that the “finite pool of [graduate] talent,” “the bright lights of Canary Wharf,” and the “perception around apprenticeships” are the difficulties that they encounter for their early careers recruitment.

“The challenges are quite different across the board. The current recruitment process for the 2016 intake is proving difficult for us, as we are fishing in a finite pool of talent,” he says.

“Getting the message out to all engineers is a challenge for us. And trying to attract them to an engineering career when you can get tempted by the bright lights of Canary Wharf, and the banks, is a challenge for us.