Andy Knight BA (Hons) MIRSE MInstD CDir

Andy joined the rail industry as a trainee technician with the British Rail London Midland Region Signalling and Telecommunications Engineering Department in 1978. He has gained working experience in a variety of technical fields including signalling installation, testing, maintenance and faulting. This then progressed to roles as a team leader in Faulting and Maintenance through to Supervisory roles within the department which involved the co-ordination and control of all faulting activities within the Manchester Piccadilly area.

Andy then joined a major training provider, with responsibility for signalling training and management of the training centre programmes and the management of a number of development programmes on behalf of a number of major customers. In this role Andy developed an expertise in the design and delivery of training solutions and the management of the customer interface as the main account manager for a number of key clients within the Signalling industry.

This also led to a number of key projects being delivered to key clients such as Irish Rail and Railtrack. The company tendered and was awarded a key contract with Irish Rail (Iarnrod Eireann) to design and deliver training to their maintenance staff which involved a large amount of account management to ensure the training met with the specification. In the case of Railtrack the company was awarded the role of design, development and initial delivery of all the training modules associated with the TPWS Project.

In 2002 Andy joined Signet Solutions with the remit of building up the training and development side of the business. This involved the continuation of main relationships and also allowed the freedom to supply training on a more bespoke basis and be able to provide clients with a totally outcome based solution which could quite rightly challenge the traditions within the industry.

This led to the award of a major piece of work being awarded to Signet by Railtrack for the delivery of the Signal Engineering Development Programme (SECP). This was delivered using the approach of challenging the tradition and ensuring that the training was focused on the objectives and outputs required. This saw a major shift in the delivery process and also allowed initiative in the review and amendment process.

In his role as Managing Director within the company Andy drives forward the company’s aim to raise the standards in development of Signal Engineers and he passionately believes that key to this is good project management and customer relationships. He became a Chartered Director in October 2006.

As Managing Director he has instigated the design of new courses to meet familiar training needs in the signalling engineering field.