Course Overview
The Level 2 Rail Engineering Track Maintenance qualification has been developed to provide you with underpinning knowledge and related practical skills in a range of railway engineering subjects, along with practical experience and expectations of the situations that you could face in a railway maintenance job role. The course is a mix of both practical and theory lessons, where you will be required to create a portfolio and complete practical-based assessments, undertaken on the rail track. You will be provided with full rail-approved Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to complete your learning journey.
The course information booklet contains all the information you will need to join the course including a full course timetable.
Course Includes
- Level 2 NVQ Diploma in Railway Engineering Track Maintenance
- Level 2 Certificate in Railway Engineering Underpinning Knowledge
- Guaranteed Employer Interview
- Safety Critical Training
- Network Rail Approved Drug, Alcohol and Medical Screening
- Hand tools / Small Plant training and assessment
- Sponsorship/Sentinel Registration
- Network Rail E-Learning Package
- Exclusive access to our Online Learning Portal
- All training conducted by Industry Experts
Course Duration
The training will be full-time, running from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, five days per week for 34 days, followed by 10 days of Safety Critical Training, with specific dates and times to be confirmed by your trainer.
Please be aware the course duration may change subject to regional requirements.
Entry Requirements
Before you can enrol on the course, a Maths and English assessment will be carried out to ensure that you meet the required level in both subjects. It is mandatory to possess a good level of written and spoken English.
You must also provide identification (either a passport or birth certificate) and proof of address that confirms you reside in the relevant area postcode and meet any other eligibility criteria requested by the Betaris @Gloucestershire College team. Finally, you will be asked to provide the team with job-related information once you have completed your course (known as “Destinations”).
Other Useful Information
While on your learning journey, you will have several assessments to complete, along with underpinning knowledge questions. When each theory and practical session is complete, you will be required to complete written evidence to demonstrate how each task was completed, what went wrong, the tools and equipment used and any problems you may have encountered.
Some of the activities that you will explore and take part in are:
- Sleeper Changing
- Transposing Rail
- Fishplace Maintenance
- Lifting and Packing
Passing the Course
This is the term used to cover the suite of mandatory course add-on modules that must be completed before you can be allowed to work on, or near, rail infrastructure. Having the Level 2 Rail Engineering Track Maintenance qualification and/or competencies on its own is not sufficient for maintaining the track. We will fund this course for you, once you have successfully completed your two City & Guilds qualifications, and subject to you passing your medical and drug and alcohol screening.
Included in the Safety Critical Training are the following subjects:
- Personal Track Safety (PTS)
- Track Induction Course (TIC)
- Overhead Line Equipment Contruction (OLEC)
- Manual Handling
- Emergency First Aid at Work
Sponsorship
Prior to undertaking your Safety Critical Training course, you will be sponsored by a company licenced under the Railway Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme (RISQS). Your sponsor is essentially an agent who enables you to complete your Safety Critical Training and will provide support in finding you job opportunities. This may be within their own company or secondary companies they work with.
Network Rail Approved Drugs, Alcohol and Medical Screening
As a pre-requisite to the Safety Critical Training course, you must undergo a medical examination to Network Rail Standard and also pass a drug and alcohol screening. We will arrange these and fund them, however, if you fail to attend the session you will then need to organise and pay for a private assessment. A positive test result will automatically result in you being unable to gain any employment within this industry for the next five years. Network Rail operates a zero-tolerance policy to drugs and alcohol.
Sentinel Card
The Sentinel Card is your passport to working within the rail industry. It is only available to workers sponsored by Network Rail companies, not the general public, and it can only be purchased by your Sponsor. Your Sentinel Card is your digital passport to the Rail Industry .
Certificates
You will receive certificates recognising your achievement for both the City & Guilds Level 2 Diploma in Rail Engineering Track Maintenance and the City & Guilds Level 2 Certificate in Rail Engineering Underpinning Knowledge (please note these may be e-certs). On successful completion, you will also receive a Competency Card, which outlines the tools you are competent in using on the railway, which could include Impact Wrench, Cobra TT/ Robel Tamper and Hand Tools.
FAQs
The Sentinel Card is the rail passport to working within the rail industry. It is only available to workers employed by rail engineering companies, not the general public.
You will register with your sponsor, and complete your Safety Critical Training. Once the Safety Critical Training is completed, the sponsor will upload the competencies onto the Sentinel database. On the successful completion of the Safety Critical Training, the Sentinel Card will be ordered and should arrive with the sponsor within 14 days to be activated.
As probationary workers, you can expect between 8 and 24 hours of work per week. A probationary worker wears a blue hat on site. Typically, once you have reached 20 entries into the “blue book” signed by a Controller of Site Safety (COSS), the probation period will be reviewed by the sponsor. As a general rule, when a white hat is received, hours can increase, these hours are dependent on the participant’s circumstances around travel, response times regarding shifts, and availability.
Yes, you will receive a certificate, which may be an e-certificate. Please note that it
may take up to 12 weeks to arrive.
Yes, you are not tied exclusively to your primary sponsor and you can have up to two
secondary sub-sponsors.
At the end of your course, you may be eligible or choose to advance onto higher
courses or additional training known as progression. Further training refers to the
ongoing process of enhancing skills, knowledge, and abilities beyond the initial training or education. If you would like to receive further information on additional courses, please email infobetaris@gloscol.ac.uk
There is no cost for PPE, as this is supplied during the course for you by
Gloucestershire College and this kit is yours to keep.
We value all our learners and welcome all feedback, whether positive or negative. Please let us know how we did, and if there is anything we can do to improve for future learners. We are really interested in your next steps so please let us know if you progress onto another course, find employment, or do an apprenticeship.
