Since Monday, the NS has its own technical training in Berkel-Enschot: the third in the country. There, students can tinker with trains to their heart’s content. Kieran Thijssen (21) from Helmond is right on target: “The train is a big, unique thing. I want to sit there.”
Kieran loves to tinker. But it took him a while to find his place. He has already tried all kinds of higher professional education courses. Law, physics, engineering, industrial designer. It wasn’t all of it: “It’s all theoretical. But I just really want to tinker. And technology and physics are my favorite things, so the train fits in perfectly with that.”
That’s how they like to see it in Berkel-Enschot. Marjolein Pitlo, manager of the Technology Factory course: “These are the people we are looking for. People who find big trains interesting and want them to go safely on the track every day, as we call it.”
“I’ve been tinkering since I was young.”
Amsterdam and Zwolle already had a place where the NS trains students to become train mechanics. But one was urgently needed in the south of the Netherlands: “In the past, students from Brabant and Limburg would come all the way to Zwolle or Amsterdam. But moving into a room has become more complicated and more expensive. So the interest from the south decreased.”
The training in Berkel-Enschot now has sixteen students. The training is at the components company, where they repair train parts. The students can immediately practice what they have just learned in the books in a large hall. Exactly what Kieran wants: “I’ve been tinkering since I was young. Welding, using grinders: I can’t sit still for long and study theory.”
After training, Kieran knows the train inside out. “Can I drive it myself?” he asks his teacher. No, not that. “But you know how the operating system works.”
“You are our colleague from day one.”
All courses together now have 52 students, while 80 mechanics are needed. NS tries all kinds of things to make students enthusiastic about the technical training. They do not have to pay tuition fees. They get work clothes and books for free. Pitlo: “We treat you as our colleague from day one. And you will receive a salary from the second year of the course.”
And that is a good salary, says Pitlo, but she does not want to mention amounts: “Because that depends on your position and your age. But studies show that NS pays well if you compare it with fellow maintenance companies.”