Two of Northern‘s female colleagues recently visited a Yorkshire school to explain how their work helps thousands of people to travel safely every day across the North of England.

Louise Whiteley, who is a Conductor team manager, and Bindu Painkal-Bowns, who is a conductor, visited Green Top Primary School in Doncaster last week to talk to Year 5 and 6 pupils about their work.

Some lucky pupils at the talk had the chance to wear a conductor’s uniform, which came with a whistle, bumbag, ticket machine and ticket clippers.

One of the children volunteered to sell tickets to all their classmates for a wide range of destinations from a ticket machine that had been set to training mode.

Among the topics that Bindu and Louise talked about was the importance of safety on the railways and the wide range of careers on offer to men and women. They also answered the children’s questions.

Whilst the rail industry has historically been dominated by men, in recent years Northern has made a series of changes to its recruitment processes to make sure it has a more diverse workforce that represents the communities it serves.

Currently, almost 20% of the Northern’s workforce are women, with more than 1,380 working in various roles across the company.

Kerry Peters, regional director for Northern, said: “We’re always proud when the fantastic women we have in our business go above and beyond to support our communities in the North.

“Bindu and Louise did a brilliant job of teaching the boys and girls how to stay safe when they travel by train and getting them to think about a future career in rail.”

She added: “It comes as we’re encouraging more women to apply for the range of roles we have on offer, ahead of International Women’s Day on Friday.

“Whether you’re interested in driving a train, becoming a conductor, developing your engineering skills or taking on a supporting role in one of our offices, there’s something for you.”