CONSTRUCTION of Crossrail beneath central London will require hundreds of engineers trained in tunnelling techniques.  However, a major problem was disclosed last year — no training establishment exists to provide a vocational training qualification (NVQ) in tunnelling.

Now London Mayor Boris Johnson has come to the rescue . . .  with £8 million of London taxpayers’ cash to fund the creation of a Crossrail Tunelling Academy to give people qualifications for a variety of roles essential to the project.

The £16 billion Crossrail project is planned to link Maidenhead and Heathrow Airport in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood to the east of London.  There will be  rail tunnels beneath London’s West End and the City with mainline  underground stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel, Isle of Dogs and Woolwich.

The new tunnelling academy is to be set up in the London Borough of Newham and will be part of a wider training and apprenticeship scheme by Transport for London to boost skills for major infrastructure projects in the capital.

"Like every city, ours is grappling with effects of the global downturn," Boris Johnson said. "But with Crossrail construction starting shortly and TfL's multibillion pound modernisation of the tube ramping up, engineering can provide a huge and vital economic boost and help London become the true engineering capital of Europe.

"I want to make sure that Londoners benefit from the opportunities that this scale of work – not seen in the south-east for 50 years – can offer."

The Mayor said the proposals would "give many hundreds the skills necessary to be a part of the exciting and rewarding work of building London's long-awaited Crossrail".

The training scheme is expected to train around 1,000 people between next year and 2015. The Crossrail project is due to be completed in 2017.

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