TransPennine Express has been shortlisted for its work with local communities promoting rail as a positive career choice for women.

The rail operator has been recognised for its work and has been shortlisted for the Social Inclusion award at the Women in Rail Awards which will take place in May.

TransPennine Express (TPE)  has a selection of programmes which are designed to introduce rail as a possible career to communities throughout the North and into Scotland. The programmes such as those aimed at apprentices and graduates have seen 20% of new recruits over the last year being under 25 years of age with an increase in young women choosing the industry which is more than ever before.

TPE launched its Step Up and Step Forward programmes in a bid to offer more opportunities for women to develop their careers, aiding an increase in female representation in management-level positions. The programme is made up of coaching and peer to peer workshops which centre on building presence and impact, working with stakeholders, career planning and strengthening networking. The scheme has seen 24% of in house promotions achieved by women alongside 1/3 of TPE's new recruits over the past 12 months.

Developing on their work last year, TPE also launched a pilot called Reach Up and Reach Forward programme which intended to support career development for colleagues from ethnically diverse backgrounds.

Kathryn O'Brien, Customer Experience Director at TPE said:

“We're really proud of the work we've carried out to make TPE more inclusive and to enhance the representation of women at all levels of the business. Even our Executive team, traditionally dominated by men across the rail industry, has more than 40 per cent of roles filled by women.

“We know there's more to do though and we now use a ‘gender-neutral language decoder' and are careful when naming roles within the business to ensure we broaden the appeal of our jobs to women across society with transferrable skills.”

Rhonda Barnes, Diversity and Inclusion Manager at TPE added:

“We're honoured to have been shortlisted for such a prestigious award. Working together we can build a better future for our communities, colleagues, and customers. Our values are central to this, especially being ‘supportive of each other'.

“Our colleagues are from all walks of life, including young people starting out, those with valuable transferrable skills starting second careers and long-serving colleagues keen to share their knowledge with those who are new to the industry. We have worked hard to create an inclusive and diverse mindset and to be an organisation whose culture, approach, efforts, and achievements are inspirational in its effort to include local communities in rail.”