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Shows how UK train operator GNER comprehensively reviewed its driver training after the chairman of the inquiry into the Ladbroke Grove railway accident called for a systematic approach to training.

Draws on information provided by the company's technical‐training team manager.

Explains that GNER launched a 43‐week training programme to develop drivers from people with no previous experience. Since the launch, 39 drivers have been trained. GNER has also developed 51 trainers to help with on‐the‐job training. Apart from the technicalities of driving and the rules and regulations, trainees learn self‐management, to help them work in isolation; safe and effective communication and actions to take in emergencies. Trainees observe drivers, drive with trainers and drive a train in service, and record their progress against agreed standards in a logbook. There are also classroom sessions, lectures, simulations, group discussions and expert visits.

Describes how GNER is the first long‐distance train operator successfully to retain its franchise, and the training has contributed to this by demonstrating that it meets national and industry standards.

Argues that, for many of the trainees, it is their first taste of shift work, so fitness for duty and the effects on lifestyle and safety performance are high on the programme's agenda.

Christopher Garnett, chief executive of the UK’s Great North Eastern Railway (GNER), takes a hands‐on approach to customer service. He could sit back and enjoy red‐carpet treatment aboard his own trains, but he is more likely to be found handing out newspapers to passengers and delivering the bad news in person if there is a problem.

Supermarket chain Tesco is piloting a scheme aimed at reducing unplanned leave of absence by its employees. The 12‐month pilot, running in 20 stores across the UK, involves giving staff three extra days of paid leave each year, but banning sick pay for the first three days of any illness, whether genuine or not. In addition, there are incentives, in the form of shopping vouchers, for staff who complete 12 months without taking any unplanned leave of absence.

Kiosks have the potential to be a significant application of information technology in retailing, information provision and service delivery. This article discusses and analyses the application of kiosks as a channel for in‐store service delivery. For these kiosks a taxonomy that characterises kiosks by their function – inform, interact, transact and relate – is proposed. Eight case study examples of in‐store kiosks are analysed in using a framework that includes environment, task, audience, and technology. Included are kiosks used by Halifax, Daewoo, Argos, Ikea, Debenhams, GNER, Sainsburys and Boots. Both the taxonomy and the framework provide a basis for further analysis of the role of kiosks in service delivery, by allowing analysis and discussion of individual kiosks to be contextualised within a wider framework.

School sex education has the potential to evoke a range of personal and political reactions. While it is usually agreed that sexuality should be ‘done’ in school, few agree on the best way of ‘doing’ it. This article provides a personal account of the development of sex education at Shepparton South Technical School, Victoria, Australia from 1973‐1985. It is supported by interviews with the people involved in those events and archival materials, including media reports. It also documents the efforts of extreme right activists to discredit and stop programmes, and the State Liberal government’s attempt to formulate a policy on sex education. First I provide a general background to technical schools in Victoria in the 1970s followed by a discussion of Shepparton South Technical School specifically. I then discuss the development of the sex education (social biology) programme, the pivotal role of the Social Biology resource Centre, and the networks involved. I also describe the attacks on the programme in the late 1970s, and their origins and impact. I conclude with a discussion of the outcomes of this intense public scrutiny, and the demise of social biology and the secondary technical schools, the ‘techs’ in the 1980s.

Tandis que tant d'efforts sont faits pour adapter les structures économiques aux besoins de notre époque, pour régler ces problèmes internationaux de la solution desquels dépend en définitive notre propre sort et celui de nos enfants, tandis que tant d'appels sont lancés en faveur de la paix, il importe de mettre en lumière le rôle capital du tourisme dans le développement des relations humaines, dans celui de la coopération internationale, de la compréhension, non seulement entre individus, mais entre professions, classes, nations.