Inspiring Muslims to seek a career in the rail industry

Nasir Khan MBE on the need to move beyond mission statements, policies and strategies to make inclusion a reality

British Muslims face universal barriers to employment and the rail sector is no different. Muslims in Rail (MIR) believe prejudice is a contributor as to why unemployment rates among Muslims generally are more than double that of any other community in the UK.

However, the railway is an industry trying to change that, and among those leading those efforts is Nasir Khan MBE, recently recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for his pledge to improve diversity in rail.

“My experience of working in the rail and construction industry has been fantastic,” said the Director at global consultancy, Currie & Brown. “Although I have witnessed prejudice first-hand, I have seen it tackled in an impressive way.

“As a first-generation immigrant in the UK, coming from Pakistan where I was the majority, the scenario here was different. For the first time in my life I was a minority with people around me who did not understand why I did certain things.

Nasir Khan MBE

“I was asked questions such as ‘What, prayers again?’, ‘Why are you not eating pork?’, ‘Is fasting a punishment since you can’t eat all month?’, ‘Why can’t you drink or go to the pub with us?’ and even when I was married I was asked ‘When are the next three?’ Luckily I had stock answers for all the questions.

“The rail industry is one of the most diverse in the UK because it serves every region and every community. I think though that we do need to move beyond mission statements, policies and strategies. There is a greater need to develop certain plan of actions that make inclusion a reality.”

Nasir is an experienced end-to-end commercial professional with added engineering, procurement project management, business and legal qualifications. He is currently a Director at Currie & Brown, a global consultancy where he leads procurement advisory, commercial claims and dispute resolutions.

“There was always something that wanted me to serve in the rail industry despite being the survivor of a fatal crash in Pakistan,” he said. “12 years on from that experience I was working on the Manchester Metrolink and when I was offered an opportunity to work for Network Rail leading their buildings and civils commercial strategy, it was an opportunity and personal satisfaction that I could not have said no to.”

Prestige projects

Nasir continued: “Now, working for a consultancy, I am utilising my 20 years of experience to improve efficiency and generate value for money. My current commissions are on some of the most prestigious projects in the world with HS2, major rail upgrade programmes with Network Rail and train operations companies and Tilbury Port, etc.”

Nasir is co-founder of Muslims in Rail (MIR), a national network of professionals drawn from leading rail and transport organisations. Since being established in 2017, its membership has grown to 700, spanning 25 plus rail and transport organisations.

The group grew out of several discussions, debates and arguments on the topic of whether the rail industry is representative of modern Britain.

“It was apparent that there were not many senior Muslim colleagues in senior leadership roles,” said Nasir. “We needed a platform to connect people where we can help each other out with career development, mentoring and coaching, whilst at the same time reaching out to communities who are not represented enough in our industry.”

Connecting employees

Nasir continued: “As a group, we started on the journey of having discussions to create networking events and awareness campaigns amongst people working in the industry. We continue connecting rail employees with one another through social events and providing training and guidance in the form of coaching and mentoring.

“We are growing our presence in the local communities as knowledge builds better understanding. That’s why we advise employers and their staff on faith issues related to Muslims, through our outreach collaborations.

“We are also inspiring the next generation through Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) education, as well as early engagement for all young people across the UK by reaching out to primary and secondary schools in communities through our railway professionals, who volunteer and carry out interactive workshops, career events and support our family days out.”

Equality, Diversion and Inclusion

As part of MIR’s role in creating change under the values of opportunities, relationships, qualities and ethics, the organisation advises on Equality, Diversion and Inclusion (EDI) matters related to Muslims in the workplace. As well as the hard work going on with MIR, Nasir is also encouraging fellow rail colleagues to play their part.

He said: “MIR recommends that the rail industry EDI plans include ‘Positive Action’, which is an initiative used in the police force to better represent BAME (Black Asian and Minority Ethnic) make up of its work force. This can be achieved through a proactive programme to target recruitment and enable training and coaching of candidates from under-represented communities to integrate them into the fabric of the organisation.

“We believe that the rail industry should take this initiative further to ensure BAME including Muslims in rail are fairly represented in both junior and senior roles across the rail industry.”

Key message

“MIR is a strong advocate of driving economic benefit through jobs and prosperity by investment and improvements to the railways. Our key message is that the benefits must be shared by all communities and that the rail industry should proactively engage marginalised and hard to reach communities in the UK, specifically many Muslim communities.

“It is important to train, advocate and set up some safeguards to ensure the engagement policies and large infrastructure plans capture input that directly benefits communities with protected characteristics. Furthermore, the make up of the rail industry and its leadership should represent the diverse communities they serve.

“It is excellent to see that gender diversity has improved significantly. We believe that the diversity and inclusiveness policies should be far reaching, and the rail industry should take improvised actions to remove barriers to achieve this aim.”