en.Wedoany.com Reported - UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham visited Alstom's Litchurch Lane Works in Derby last week, where he unveiled a new technical education route and highlighted the role of apprenticeships and advanced manufacturing in British industry. The visit took place during the Prime Minister's second week in office.

The Prime Minister met around 100 current and former apprentices and graduates from Alstom and its supply chain partners at the company's National Training Academy. The academy currently has 120 apprentice trainees and graduates, and provides specialist training for engineers and technicians across Alstom's 36 sites throughout the UK.

Among those he met were Process Engineer Chloe Turnbull and Product Cost Engineer Yasha Sidiqui, both of whom have benefited from Alstom's training and graduate development programmes. Turnbull, who switched careers from working in a pharmacy at age 23 to join Alstom as an apprentice, now oversees the manufacture of ten Class 345 Aventra trains built for London's Elizabeth line. She said it was a huge honour to speak with the Prime Minister, who showed great interest in everything he saw and wished everyone well in their careers.

Sidiqui was named Graduate of the Year at the 2025 RailStaff Awards. She undertook placements across several Alstom engineering teams before moving into a role focused on enhancing the long-term value of new train designs. She said her career has been rewarding despite being only a few years in; rail as a career choice can be overlooked, and she hopes the Prime Minister's support for the industry will help change that.

The visit also provided an opportunity for Alstom to highlight the importance of Litchurch Lane Works. The factory has been building trains for 150 years and remains the only facility in the UK capable of designing, engineering, building and testing trains under one roof. Alstom believes that without this factory, the UK would be the only G7 economy unable to design, build and test trains for its national rail network on home soil.

Beyond Derby, Alstom showcased its wider UK manufacturing footprint: bogie and traction motor overhaul in Crewe, design and manufacture of passenger systems in Sutton-in-Ashfield, and signalling technology exported to global customers from Plymouth. The company supports more than 60% of the UK's operational trains.

Rob Whyte, Managing Director of Alstom UK, said the company was delighted to welcome the Prime Minister and cabinet members to Derby to meet apprentices and graduates and showcase the future of UK train manufacturing, a future rooted in the city that is set to become the home of Great British Railways. He used the visit to highlight the economic impact of rail manufacturing and procurement on British industry: rail can be a core driver of UK reindustrialisation; in the last year alone, Alstom worked with nearly 1,300 UK businesses, spending over £720 million and supporting nearly 11,000 UK jobs in the supply chain; in addition, the company is investing £35 million of its own funds in Adessia — a next-generation train designed and engineered by Alstom in Derby — to strengthen British rail and support GBR in achieving its objectives.

Whyte also said that the Prime Minister's plan to use public procurement to support British industry demonstrates how the rail sector can deliver skills, jobs and economic growth at every level of the supply chain and across the country.

The Prime Minister's visit came around a year after Litchurch Lane hosted The Greatest Gathering event, the centrepiece of the Railway 200 celebrations marking two centuries of modern passenger rail. The three-day event attracted over 40,000 visitors and showcased more than 140 historic and modern rail vehicles, which Alstom described as the world's largest gathering of railway vehicles and related exhibits.