Southeast Communities Rail Partnership was approached by train operator Southern to develop a project for Year 12 students at Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College BHASVIC for their Skills Week (1-4 July).
The aims were to engage with young people about the environmental benefits of train travel, to spread the word about the work of Community Rail, to increase their employability and confidence by conducting and presenting a travel survey, and to promote sustainability.
Line Officer Paul Bromley held initial discussions with the college and then developed a workshop and programme of activities in partnership with the train operator Southern, Brighton station manager and Brighton station Community Rail partner Brighton Toy & Model Museum.
The week’s activities were:
Monday – 0.5 day workshop at college with introduction to Community Rail, fun quiz on environmental benefits of train travel, advice on creating surveys. Unsupervised learning with creation of online survey
Tuesday – unsupervised learning and survey distribution
Wednesday – 0.5 day visit to Toy & Model Museum to learn more about Brighton station and history of model trains; meeting with Brighton station manager; students conduct face-to-face passenger survey
Thursday – collation of survey results followed by 0.5 day formal presentation of survey results and discussion on learning outcomes.
All students engaged with the project and collaborated in working as a team on creating and conducting the surveys.
Many of them found it difficult to approach passengers in person for the station survey – this helped to increase their confidence. They also learned more about railway careers.
"I found it fun to work independently and helped me learn how to improvise and work in a team"
"It was nice having the experience of working in a group to create something"