Work and Pensions Minister Ian Duncan Smith tried his hand at engineering last week when he set out to discover more about a course getting unemployed people on track for a career in the rail industry.

Students on Pathway to Employment programmes at Waltham Forest College showed IDS how to shovel ballast, manoeuvre sleepers, and pin rails into position.

The MP for Chingford and Woodford Green then donned a hi-vis jacket and demonstrated his newly learned skills by screwing in a pin fixing a sleeper to the rail.

The college has its own rail training track at its main campus in Forest Road, Walthamstow, built to help young apprentices and adults find jobs in the rail industry.

Mr Duncan Smith said the college “undoubtedly” plays a crucial role in helping to reduce unemployment locally.

“There will be a huge increase in funding for this kind of skills related work,” he said.

“Vocational training is going to have a whole new load of money going into it and this will benefit colleges like this.”

Some of those who had their life changed by the course gave testimony to its success.

Dave Ocunneff was unemployed for 12 years before embarking on the programme.

He completed a track maintenance course and straight away found a job as a cable puller on the railway.

“I thought I was washed up and finished after being out of work for so long,” he said.

“The course was hard. There were times I nearly gave up. I now have to pinch myself when I see how far I have progressed.

“I got married in 2013 to the woman I had been with for 27 years and I promised her I would have a job within a year. I did it and I’m proud of that.”

Michael Appleyard, 40, was also unemployed after being made redundant from his job as a motor mechanic. He too walked straight in a job on the railway after completing a course.

“The course was very intensive but it prepared us for work so well,” he said. “I love the variety of working in different places and doing different things.”

Mr Duncan Smith told the students: “The UK has been really poor at developing its own citizens to do infrastructure work and has relied for too long on bringing people in from abroad, and I am really pleased to see all of you here.”

Mary Roberts, who heads the rail course, said 150 unemployed people have been on the programme since it began 18 months ago.

She added: “Often, when people first come here they are argumentative, unpunctual and difficult, but when they finish they are really different people.”

Penny Wycherley, the college’s principal, said the college has a 74 per cent success rate in getting people into employment and staying there for more than a year.