Last night I witnessed exactly what dedication and hard work can achieve.
Sat at the Virgin Trains training centre in Crewe I witnessed personnel from both the public and private sectors coming together to discuss the new National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering.
It was fantastic to see such dedication from Gil Howarth and Pete Waterman, who have speared a campaign to create nationally recognised training centres to deliver nationally recognised qualifications in railway engineering.
There were also some really inspiring speeches made by those involved directly in the industry who have already seen the benefits of intensively training their workers.
Their point was that not only does rail engineering provide an interesting and rewarding career for many of those who have been disenfranchised by years of government incompetence in managing the UK skills market, but that by better training our workers we can save on costs at a time when the industry most needs to.
After all, a skilled workforce costs far less than an incompetent one, because it makes far fewer mistakes.
