East Midlands Trains shows its support for the National Citizen Service with ‘Business Challenge Day’
- Business challenge day for fifteen and sixteen year olds held at University of Leicester
- Programme for 150 young people educating them about business
- Day gave East Midlands Trains valuable insight in to the views of young people who travel by rail
East Midlands Trains has showed its support for the National Citizen Service (NCS) by taking part in the University of Leicester’s Business Challenge Day.
NCS is an experience designed to make young people feel challenged and changed, engaged and empowered. The four-phase programme is an exciting journey that will give those who take part the confidence and skills they need to seize the future they want. Phase two is all about discovery, this part of the programme is designed to give young people essential life skills from local business leaders, give them confidence in public speaking and help improve their communication skills.
Working alongside the Leicestershire Business Education Company, who run the Summer School programmes, East Midlands Trains were invited to share valuable insight into a career in the railway, including information on the forthcoming franchise change. The young people were set the challenge of identifying the top three barriers that they believe prohibit rail travel amongst young people.
One of the biggest barriers was feeling safe. The young people said that they wanted a way to let their parents know they were safe whilst travelling. One of the ideas to combat this was an auto SMS when they checked their ticket at barriers and on train.
Richard Clay, Head of Sales for East Midlands Trains said: “It was a highly rewarding day and gave valuable insight into the views of the young people on rail travel.
“We had the privilege of choosing a winning team who each were awarded two free rail tickets to experience our service.”
Barbara Chantrill, Chief Executive, Leicestershire Education Business Company said: “Richard, Jenna, Chris and Emma were so enthusiastic about East Midlands Trains and really made young people think about train travel and what they look for as young users of the service.
“Their concerns were around safety and their well being, cost and the environment. The young people presented some well thought through ideas which I’m sure will be useful to the business from a marketing and customer care perspective”.
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