• SNCF Réseau has just inaugurated a training campus in Bègles, near Bordeaux, to provide training in railway infrastructure jobs.

  • The company faces major industrial challenges, and must seduce young people to attract them to its trades.

  • To do this, it relies in particular on new technologies, and offers training supported by virtual reality and the latest generation simulators.

It aims to become the showcase for SNCF Réseau professions, with the aim of attracting young people.

A training campus for rail infrastructure jobs was inaugurated on Tuesday in the industrial zone of Bègles near Bordeaux, in the extension of the Hourcade freight site.

It will be one of SNCF Réseau's three mega campuses, along with Nanterre and Lyon Saint-Priest, which will be inaugurated in September, replacing the twenty or so training centers that have existed until now in the four corners of the France.

Virtual reality and railway installations

To train in work or rail traffic trades (tracks, signaling, catenaries, etc.), SNCF Réseau will use new tools in these new high-tech centers.

“We use virtual reality to simulate movement in the rights-of-way, to show how we set up a work train, explains Brigitte Capponi, training director.

We also use simulators for traffic officers, this makes it possible to manage incidents of all kinds.

The advantage of these different latest generation simulators is that we have the right to make mistakes, then we send our students to the technical platform where they will practice on real life.

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Because the Bègles campus also has the advantage of having been built on SNCF wasteland, which makes it possible to benefit from part of the Hourcade facilities.

“We have a technical platform that is unique in France due to the variety of its railway installations, and we are the only ones to offer a welding hall” points out Brigitte Capponi.

Facilities that interest external service providers, since even the RATP will send some of its employees there.

70 halls and 204 rooms

Opened on April 1, the campus is gaining momentum and currently welcomes 150 trainees per day, 80% of whom come from the greater west of France.

The objective is to reach 250 or even 300. “We train all profiles, all populations, and we offer 80% of the 150 SNCF Réseau jobs” insists Hugues Bourcier de Saint Chaffray, director of the establishment.

"We can train graduates of Bac, Bac + 2, engineers, or people who have already had a first professional career" adds Misoo Yoon, Deputy Director General of Human Resources, who emphasizes that "we have a real need for electricians , it is a sector that is particularly under strain.

To accommodate them, the Bègles campus has three buildings covering 36,000 m2 with 70 classrooms and workshops, 204 rooms, and a restaurant area… Cost of the operation: 46 million euros, entirely financed by SNCF Réseau.

“We no longer train enough for industrial professions”

“We no longer train enough for industrial professions, not only in France, throughout Europe, analyzes Luc Lallemand, CEO of SNCF Réseau.

The reindustrialisation of France involves encouraging young people to do these jobs. We are very attentive to this at the SNCF, because what is at stake is the continuity of our group's activities.

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A major challenge in New Aquitaine, which has the largest linear railway in France with 20% of the national network, “and which is not in good condition” pointed out François Poupard, director general of the services of the regional council.

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  • Company

  • SNCF

  • Training

  • Learning

  • Bordeaux

  • Aquitaine