Young Talents in Maintenance – From Quality Checks to Passenger Safety

This is the second year that Manu has been a summer employee at FleetCare. He originally decided to apply to FleetCare by chance, but the meaningful work, good working atmosphere, and interest in learning new things made him return for the summer of 2024.

Manu is interested in analytical work, and he told that to his supervisor already at the job interview. His interest was noted, and his job involved developing data analytics and how FleetCare can use data to improve operations and quality. During the summer, he was working on a tool to monitor the implementation of the 6S method in production facilities. 6S is a method that aims to maintain a comfortable, smooth, and safe working environment. Quality and safety rounds are carried out regularly in the production facilities and the instrumentation allows the status of the rounds to be monitored.

Other assignments that Manu had included, for example, producing packaging instructions for a component: how the component should be packaged to avoid damage. Manu likes the variety in his assignments.

"I like the chance to get away from the normal routine for a business trip, for example," he says.

As VR is a visible player in society and the rail sector is important, it is good that the work is done properly with quality and safety in mind. Manu says that his work has gone well, and returning to work for a second summer was nice. He is also pleased with his professional development.

Manu says he needs analytical skills to collect data and filter and compile information from multiple sources in his job. He highlights the importance of teamwork skills: “The quality work involves a lot of developing and it’s simply easier to do problem-solving in a group.”

There is also a lot of joy in having colleagues: it is motivating to learn from more experienced colleagues and to help others as his own skills grow, but also to ask for help when needed. 

After the summer, Manu continued his studies in production economics at the University of Oulu. He’s in the second year of his master’s degree and is currently working on his thesis for FleetCare.

Jere applied to FleetCare for a safety internship for the summer of 2024 because the company's reputation and commitment to quality and safety inspired him. He has a degree in safety and risk management from Laurea University of Applied Sciences and became interested in safety and well-being at work through his education. The development projects in his degree programme focused on improving practice or a condition using qualitative methods. He felt that the job advertisement was targeted to his educational background and the skills he had acquired through it.

Jere's main assignment for the summer was in risk assessments for fleet services. In practice, the work involved working with the assessment team to identify potential hazards and risks associated with operations on a production-by-production basis. The information is collected through assessment team meetings and observation rounds. When the risk factors are identified, they are assigned a risk level, and measures are taken to reduce the risks.

As an example, Jere mentions the maintenance level, a canal into which people can fall. If there is a risk of a fall, the probability of the hazard, the severity of the consequences, and the existing protections are assessed. He explains that the assessments use a comprehensive risk assessment form, in which a fall into the canal is only one of the risk factors. The form also categorizes risk and harm factors, including psychosocial factors. Safety in context is a multidimensional concept and there are many different types of work, such as checking safety observation reports and drafting safety instructions. 

Working was smooth and flexible and every day was a chance to learn something new. Jere feels that the work has been what he was promised from the start, and by talking to his supervisor he was also able to influence his work. He thinks it's great that people and their different situations are taken into account at FleetCare. Jere also praises the interaction within his team: "From the beginning, there has been a low-threshold policy in terms of discussion and planning work in general."  

Jere is open-minded about the future. He believes that his work experience at FleetCare will provide valuable learning about the substance of occupational safety work, especially the design and implementation of risk assessments. He also says that the methods of safety work, like any other work, are not static, but live and evolve with the times, and in retrospect, lessons learned can be reviewed and reflected upon.

"I would say that the opportunity itself to work in a safety-critical field already enriches my professional self very much," he says.

How will Manu and Jere's work be visible to the end customers, the train passengers? Both feel that their work has an indirect impact.

"We work to make the work in the depot go smoother and to get the rolling stock moving, so we improve the working conditions on the production side," says Manu.

The movement of rolling stock is quite a big issue, which is certainly visible to the train passengers. Jere agrees: "Safety work is about continuity of operations. This translates into concrete actions at the customer interface, meaning the train is on time, the rolling stock is in good condition and the journey goes smoothly and pleasantly." 

Both Manu and Jere encourage young people to apply for a job at FleetCare if they are interested in the rail industry as an environment. They both agree that it doesn’t matter if one is not up to the speed of railways from the beginning – every day is a chance to learn something new and practice makes perfect!