RMT called today for the end to the outsourcing of education for railway apprentices at the union’s AGM.

Moving the successful motion, London Underground fleet delegate Fred Seale said that the state of apprentice education “has never been worse.”

He added: “I am a third year apprentice but the outsourced education … falls far short of what was promised.

“They have outsourced and privatised it, using tutors often with little to no railway experience. 

“This will not stop with apprentices. If training can be gutted and outsourced for apprentices, it can spread throughout our industry.”

Ashford no 1 branch delegate Marc Harris, who seconded the motion, said: “Working on the track is already dangerous enough without the added hinderance of substandard education for apprentices.”

RMT plans to mount a campaign, involving lobbying MPs, mayors and other politicians nationwide, to bring all railway apprentice education in house and end the vast waste created by outsourcing.

Senior assistant general secretary Eddie Dempsey said: “We will use research to look at the costs and waste of outsourcing. And that will help us improve the schemes and will give us a leg-up in trying to organise the next generation of trade unionists in the RMT.”