Alstom has opened a new training centre for welders and fitters at its factory at Mátranovák in Hungary.

The new training centre is designed to ensure the company has the skilled workforce needed to manufacture bogie frames for its global customers. As well as training new engineers, the training centre will be used provide further training for existing employees by providing them with the essential knowledge and skills they need for working in steel assembly.

Alstom emphasises the need to be “Right First Time!”, and the new training centre will play a crucial role in reinforcing this principle among its site employees, including more than 400 welders and fitters.

The new training centre is designed to provide students with conditions similar to those found on the shop floor, to enable them to transition more easily and quickly from a training environment to the production line.

Equipment in the new training centre includes ten welding stations, a cutting machine and two console cranes; there are also component clamps and rotators that are already used during production.

Besides the practical training rooms, there is also a dedicated classroom for theoretical lessons, a changing room, and a common room. Training sessions will last 8 to 12 weeks, during which students will learn the precise welding techniques needed to manufacture bogie frames, learn basic locksmithing skills, and become proficient in the safe and correct use of the tools and machines used on the production line.

Elsewhere in Hungary, Alstom has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with MOL, Hungary’s leading oil and gas company, to explore the use of hydrogen technology in rail transport. Alstom also has a contract with the Hungarian company MÁV-Vagon for the overhaul of the bogie frames of 25 Traxx electric locomotives.

“We are committed to safety and quality! Mátranovák is Alstom’s most important site for the production of railway bogie frames, and its knowledge and competency are essential for the company to be able to deliver the ordered trains to our customers on time. It is important for us to strengthen the inflow of well-trained professionals to our site and keep the knowledge of our most important operators at a high level. As the bogie frames are one of the most important parts of our trains in terms of railway safety, it is also a responsibility to invest in the training of the colleagues producing these important parts of Alstom trains.”

Carine Siegwalt, site managing director of the Alstom factory in Mátranovák