Why Pro Rail Academy?
Whether you’re looking for your first job in rail or trying to build a workforce for the years ahead, here’s what training with Ireland’s first railway training academy means for you.
Candidates
A career in rail starts with a short safety course, and it can take you as far as you want to go. Here’s why we think the Academy is the right place to start.
Learn from people who do the job
Every course we run is externally accredited and recognised across the industry, and it’s delivered by the training arm of Pro Rail Services, a family-run contractor that puts crews on live railways across Ireland and the UK every day. Our instructors have stood where you’ll be standing, so you learn what actually matters on site alongside what’s needed to pass.
Qualifications that travel
Our courses cover Irish and UK rail standards, including Irish Rail PTS, SOLAS Safe Pass, OLEC and signalling, and every one is accredited by the relevant awarding body. The tickets you earn stay with you, whether you work in Mayo, Dublin or Manchester.
A route into work, not just a certificate
We train people because the industry needs them, and we work closely with employers across the Irish network who are hiring. Pro Rail Services recruits from our courses too, so keep an eye on our vacancies once you’ve qualified.
A purpose-built centre that’s easy to reach
Our training centre is being built in Kiltimagh, County Mayo, on the Western Rail Corridor, ten minutes from Ireland West Airport and Claremorris station. Wherever you’re travelling from, in Ireland or from the UK, you’ll be training in a facility designed for rail from the ground up.
An industry that needs you
Ireland is about to deliver the biggest rail programme in the history of the state, with €34bn set aside for DART+, electrification, new fleets and new stations, and the country needs more than 30,000 extra construction and engineering workers a year to build it. There has never been a better time to get in.
Everyone in this business started somewhere, and most of us remember the person who gave us our first chance. That’s what we want the Academy to be: a proper start, in an industry that will need good people for decades.
Employers
Finding trained people is the hardest part of delivering rail work in Ireland right now, and it’s about to get harder. Here’s how the Academy helps.
Delivered by a contractor
We’re a rail contractor ourselves, so we know what a competent operative looks like and what it costs when one isn’t. Our courses are externally accredited, and they’re delivered by people who manage crews on live railways, so your people arrive on site with a recognised ticket and a clear idea of how the work really runs.
Whole teams, trained around your roles
Tell us what you’re hiring for and we’ll build a programme to match, covering the safety tickets, plant qualifications and specialist skills your projects need. Everything runs at our centre in County Mayo, and we’ll help you plan the workforce behind it.
Training and testing in one place
Alongside our courses, we provide Irish Rail approved drug and alcohol testing and medicals, so keeping your teams compliant and fit for work doesn’t mean dealing with three different suppliers.
A pipeline of new people
We’re bringing people into rail who wouldn’t otherwise have found it: school and college leavers, former Defence Forces personnel, construction workers adding rail tickets, and skilled workers arriving from elsewhere in Europe. That’s a pool of trained candidates you can draw on as your workload grows.
Built for what’s coming
The Western and Midlands population is expected to grow by 20 to 30% by 2040, and the rail investment to support it is already approved. Every contractor in Ireland will be competing for the same people. Training them well, close to where the work is, gives you a head start.
We set up the Academy because we were struggling to find trained people ourselves, and we knew every other contractor in Ireland was in the same position. If we can train them well, close to where the work is, the whole industry benefits.