West Midlands Students Celebrate National Rail Competition Win

A team of Engineering students from South & City College Birmingham have successfully won the Midlands heat of a nationwide National Rail competition to find some of the UK’s best up and coming engineering talent.

Five Level 3 Electrical Engineering students walked away with a Fast Trackers regional trophy and will now head to the National Finals in July taking place over three days in Birmingham.

Fast Trackers is an interactive student engagement programme based around railway engineering with the aim to inspire students to continue onto higher education and to create a higher uptake on graduate-level jobs within the engineering industry, fuelled by the ongoing development of High Speed Two (HS2).

Launched in 2018, the scheme was delivered by volunteers from Network Rail and Mott MacDonald, in collaboration with a consortium from the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) Higher Horizons +, Greater Manchester Higher and Future U.

Bee Narga-Martin, HE Outreach Advisor for South & City College said, “I am very impressed by our students ‘commitment, focus and determination to succeed, putting many hours of work in the project, including hours of their own personal time.

“I’m also very proud of one student, Mark Bhagwandeen, who picked up an award for Best Presenter. All the students were very professional and knowledgeable in their approach during the regional final.”

Bee added, “This is such a valuable experience for our students that can be added to their CV or personal statement on their UCAS application this will ensure they stand out from the crowd. It also gave them industry knowledge of their subject area and an opportunity to meet people who will support their future career aspirations.”

“A huge congratulations to all those involved and best of luck in the finals.”