ISS Labour to fight skills shortage with new Salford training facility

Construction and maintenance workforce firm ISS Labour has created jobs in Greater Manchester after investing in a new training centre to support the UK’s rail network.

The Salford facility will see ISS Labour, which is part of recruitment group Specialist People Services, address the skills shortage hitting the rail industry by providing a centre for developing engineers.

The training hub, which created five new jobs, is due to train over 10k people in the next five years.

Further, the facility expands ISS Labour’s North West presence. The firm currently employs 200 people in the region.

The CEO of ISS Labour, Simon Higgens, said: “As part of its ongoing investment work to support rising demand for Britain’s rail services, Network Rail is electrifying hundreds of miles of track across the country.

“Clearly this creates long-term demand for skilled engineers to carry out this specialist work.”

He added: “Having established a strong reputation as a supplier of high-quality, contingent labour to the rail industry, we have now successfully extended the range of services we provide.”

With Network Rail set to invest £25bn in rail infrastructure before 2019, ISS Labour believes there is a “pressing need” for new skilled workers.

The firm has reported that, according to government data, the total number of miles travelled on British trains by 2040 will be double 2010’s figures.

Simon continued: “The investment in our new state-of-the-art training centre is part of our focus on serving the Overhead Line Electrification (OLE) needs of the industry.

“It enables us to upskill our own workforce, meeting the needs of our OLE customers, and also to provide an in-demand training service for external customers working across the industry.”

ISS Labour’s turnover in the 12 months to March 2015 reached £116.5m, a year-on-year increase of 30%.