Engineering Sector: The evolving role of L&D in engineering recruitment

Sinead Trudgill FCIPD, MSc, is the Director of Learning & Organisational Development at Network Rail. With a strategic focus on developing high-performing teams across the UK’s rail infrastructure, she leads the design and rollout of leadership programmes, talent frameworks, and inclusive culture initiatives. Sinéad’s background includes senior HR leadership roles within Network Rail and directorship experience in organisational development, underpinned by her professional credentials in HR (FCIPD) and a master’s degree in organisational development. Passionate about enabling change at scale, she aims to equip leaders with the skills and mindset to deliver transformation and safety across the rail network.

Dan Crerand is Director of Workforce Solutions and leads the Train to Deploy business at Rullion, which he launched to help clients address long-term workforce challenges within critical infrastructure. The model focuses on building tailored, future-fit talent pipelines- grounded in a deep understanding of each client’s capability needs and business priorities.
With a background spanning early careers, social mobility, and strategic workforce planning, Dan works with organisations to move beyond transactional hiring by designing scalable, skills-led solutions that unlock overlooked or underutilised talent. He partners with trusted training providers to deliver targeted, job-ready upskilling aligned to real-world demand.

Dan’s approach combines commercial insight with innovation- enabling businesses to access the talent they need not just today, but for the future. He currently supports employers across sectors such as energy, utilities, rail, and engineering, helping them evolve their workforce strategies in response to a fast-changing landscape.

Xanthe Marmion is CEO of Hatch Digital, a workforce innovation company rethinking how employers find, train, and retain talent. With a focus on outcomes over optics, they work with leading organisations to design end-to-end solutions that close real skills gaps while driving genuine diversity and performance. Hatch’s Hire & Train model integrates inclusive recruitment with role-specific learning, ensuring new hires are productive, supported, and ready to grow in fast-moving environments like tech and engineering.

Rather than relying on generic pathways or retrospective fixes, Hatch’s approach starts with the job and builds from there, shaping training around what success actually looks like within the client’s environment. The result is a more agile, equitable, and future-proof workforce. Known for cutting through the noise, she brings a systems-level view to L&D and talent strategy, with a clear focus on inclusion, progression, and long-term impact.