I was initially offered January but since then I have been refused release which is annoying to say the least. Just proves that being internal is actually a hinderance and not an advantage.
I believe January was nearly full from the remaining people from the talent pool from 18 months ago. (yes it can take that long to get on a course.)
However I am reliably informed that they need many more people this year so I am expecting the vast majority of us should be on the April course. I do believe a couple of people have been given January courses but I am not 100% sure.
they are starting the recruitment process again in January so there will be a batch of people through by March again.
So that would leave about 20 in the pool, ten each for April and the course after (summer?) depending on how fast people are promoted to mainline etc.
EMT take from the pool in the order your assessments run out, so as the pool gets fuller in March after the January assessments, those candidates won't jump the December passes unless they have shorter time to run on already achieved OPC passes.
As has been mentioned before, people waiting in the talent pool nearly two years was caused by redundant freight drivers jumping the queue so to speak. That is unlikely to happen again.
The only cloud on the horizon now as I see it is the franchise end in 2019. To be in a talent pool at this point could be a risky business. I know of people who were simply booted from talent pools when Thameslink became Great Northern and there are people sh*tting it at West Mids trains now for the same reason. I have no real confidence Stagecoach will keep EMT post 2019. Don't get me wrong, they have done a very good job, but equally they did at SWT. The way franchises are dished out now, the dft don't really care how things have gone previously, it's more which bidder promises DOO and increased public purse payments. To further muddy the 2019 waters, in 2019 the EMT and XC franchises expire together and there will almost certainly be a reallocation of routes and resources, the turbostar routes BHM-NOT and BHM-LEI-SSD will possibly become part of EMT so get ready to sign 170s.