Empowering Tasmanian students to be the best they can be as they transition from education to the workforce is the key focus of TasRail’s new partnership with the Beacon Foundation.
The partnership was launched today at TasRail’s Brighton Transport Hub by TasRail CEO Damien White and Beacon State Manager Nick Probert.
TasRail will manage a range of activities within Beacon’s collaborative education program in schools, including mentoring, workplace experience, careers on wheels and job chats to highlight the vast range of career opportunities available to Tasmanian students through the rail industry.
TasRail CEO Damien White congratulated the Beacon Foundation on the outstanding results achieved in assisting young Tasmanians transition from education to meaningful employment.
“As part of TasRail’s commitment to excellence and innovation, we have been investigating a number of options to work with the community to engage Tasmanian students and our TasRail team to ensure the myriad of career opportunities at TasRail are explored,” Mr White said.
“We chose to partner with Beacon because of their passion and focus to make a positive difference to the future of young Tasmanians. Students from around Tasmania will have an opportunity to meet our employees to learn about their jobs, discuss training requirements, visit our worksites and understand the day-to-day demands of successfully running rail operations to deliver freight in a safe, reliable and competitive manner on behalf of our customers.”
About 15 students from the Jordan River Learning Federation today toured TasRail’s Brighton workshops and hardstand, and were also able to speak to TasRail Locomotive Drivers, Rollingstock Maintainers, Rail Operators and the Communications and Stakeholder Relations team about their career choices and daily work tasks.
Beacon State Manager Nick Probert said it was an invaluable opportunity for students to have direct interaction with a busy and productive workplace, as well as meet members of the TasRail team who shared their career progression stories.
“The students were able to talk to young and passionate railway workers who commenced at TasRail as trainee Rail Operators and then through on and off the job training, they have progressed to trainee and qualified Locomotive Drivers,” Mr Probert said.
"The students were excited to learn about the extensive infrastructure spend in rail by the State and Federal Governments to underpin a strong future for rail freight transport in Tasmania, hence opening many exciting career opportunities for students.
“We are very thankful to TasRail for their three-year commitment to Beacon and I have no doubt that there will be many positive outcomes for our students and also the TasRail team as we deliver innovative strategies to engage those about to enter the workforce.”
