Even if you pass through Bristol Parkway railway station every day, you would be forgiven for never having noticed Network Rail's new training centre – after all, anyone who did notice the series of railway lines at the side of the track would assume they're simply railway sidings.

But once you step inside the £4-million complex, which was opened last year in a former Post Office depot, you realise there is more to this place than mere railway tracks.

The centre is home to Network Rail's apprenticeship scheme. So far the scheme has drawn 1,000 people into working for the company, which maintains the track and the signals of the rail network throughout the country.

Dan Collins, 22, of Brislington, benefited from the two-year apprenticeship – graduating last year.

"I spotted the advert in the Evening Post, and I thought that was the job for me," he says. "I'd always had an interest in engineering, so to be able to work with railways was ideal.

"I didn't want to go off to university and get into debt, as so many of my friends had done, so to be able to take an apprenticeship, and get paid while I was learning, seemed perfect.

"The first year is spent mostly in the training centre – this place wasn't here when I started the scheme, so I had to travel to Gosport. Much of the first year is theory-based, and people might be surprised to see how much time we actually spend in classrooms – studying everything from physics to mechanics.

"You need to know the basics of engineering before you can be let loose on the rail network.

"The second year of the apprenticeship scheme is more hands-on, on-the-job training, with a mentor who is experienced in the trade."

The new training facility at Parkway is exceptional as it has an indoor 90-metre re-creation of a railway line, which the trainees can use to develop their skills.

Tutor Gordon Wilson explains: "There are two basic elements – the track laying, or permanent work as we call it, and the signalling. These are two different trades within the profession, and apprentices will eventually choose to specialise in one or the other.

"But there are actually 100 different courses that we run here for Network Rail workers who are keen to develop their skills and qualifications – everything from telecommunications on the rail network to maintaining level crossings."

Ryan Fell, 18, of Saltford, has just completed his first year at the new training centre.

"It's a brilliant place to learn your trade, because it is such a specialist facility," he says. "The idea is that when you do then go out on the tracks for real, you know exactly what you're doing."

Jason Cripps, 22, of Midsomer Norton, says: "It's a fascinating job. People think we're just going to be out there laying tracks, but it's much more interesting than that. There is the design element – working out how the tracks should run, which has to take in all kinds of considerations, such as stresses, geometry and safety."

The new centre trains up to 200 apprentices each year, from across the south of England. The apprenticeship scheme it hosts has recently won a coveted business award – the Serco Talent Award, at the annual Business in the Community (BITC) Awards for Excellence, presented by the Prince of Wales.

The award-winning advanced apprenticeship scheme will continue to train an additional 1,200 people in the next five years nationally.

In 2009 alone, the company will spend more than £30m on vocational training and is set to take on 280 graduate recruits, about double last year's intake.

Iain Coucher, chief executive of Network Rail, says: "We believe in investing in our people. A bigger and better railway needs the very best in skills to succeed. By investing in the future of hundreds of young men and women, we invest in our own future too. We are immensely proud that we have reached this milestone of 1,000 apprentices and look forward to training the next 1,000."

And if the recently proposed electrification of the London to Bristol mainline goes ahead, the Bristol training centre could see a further redevelopment in the pipeline.

"If that happens, it would be likely that Network Rail would need to develop a training facility that could deal with the issues of an electrified track, and as the newest and most up-to-date training centre, there is a reasonable likelihood that Bristol could be chosen for that role," explains Mavis Choong, communications officer for Network Rail. "Ultimately we're a company that continues to evolve and develop its apprenticeships in spite of the recession, and that has to be good news for young people."