A career as a signaller

[Seejwalker]

Not upset - bemused. (If anyone's "upset", you might conclude it's the person who introduced terms like "dick move" and "****" into the discussion. )

I thought the 'one year rule' for new starters was now being enforced as part of the apprenticeship T&Cs. What would be more "premature" than this - or am I missing something?

No I think the one year rule, is essentially because the apprenticeship runs for one year, so after that you could move.

 

[Tom Quinne]

I can understand that most higher grades will be filled from the existing signaller pool, but what happens if the manager only has say two applicants, and they dont perform well at interview or the manager doesnt warm to their personalities for example. Would they still generally take one of them on as they are proven in the job, or could they make a judgement call and list externally?

Oh, and how many jobs do there tend to be on the internal list?

It depends on how desperate they are to fill the job.

At the moment there are approx 25-30 jobs on the signaller list alone.

 

[Concho007]

Just for people who may be wondering on wait times, I found posts like this quite reassuring so thought I’d post mine.

Application Under Review 14-Mar-2019 11:36:50
Application Accepted 15-Mar-2019 07:00:37
Application Under Consideration 20-Mar-2019 08:36:07
Invited to Test 20-Mar-2019 09:30:16
Test Completed 22-Mar-2019 09:40:03
Test Completed 25-Mar-2019 10:57:16
Application under consideration for assessment 2 09-Apr-2019 14:18:47

My application currently looks like this: (the job closed last Wednesday:

Application Under Review 07-Apr-2019 01:56:00
Application Accepted 08-Apr-2019 07:09:34
Application Under Consideration 08-Apr-2019 14:33:00
Test Completed 08-Apr-2019 15:30:50
Test Completed 09-Apr-2019 09:26:26

Not sure if its a case of no news is good news but there does seem to have been a bit of a gap now its 29th April. Really want this job as well...

 

[Rockhopper]

Hi all, like many on here I'm someone who has recently signed up after passing the online tests etc for a grade 3 position at Ranskill SB.
A couple of question if I may though:
The 8 non technical skills that are often mentioned - if you Google that phrase it comes back with this web site https://www.rssb.co.uk/Library/improving-industry-performance/2012-leaflet-non-technical-skills.pdf which is for the rail industry but only has 7 skills which are a bit different to the eight that people list. Which is correct? I think that pdf might be a bit old now perhaps?

Employment checks (assuming i get that far!!) - I left full time work at the start of April 2019 to work for myself (I'm an Architect), will that be acceptable in terms of continuous employment history?

And finally, the question that everyone seems to ask - what shift pattern does Ranskill operate?

Cheers guys

 

[headshot119]

Hi all, like many on here I'm someone who has recently signed up after passing the online tests etc for a grade 3 position at Ranskill SB.
A couple of question if I may though:
The 8 non technical skills that are often mentioned - if you Google that phrase it comes back with this web site https://www.rssb.co.uk/Library/improving-industry-performance/2012-leaflet-non-technical-skills.pdf which is for the rail industry but only has 7 skills which are a bit different to the eight that people list. Which is correct? I think that pdf might be a bit old now perhaps?

Employment checks (assuming i get that far!!) - I left full time work at the start of April 2019 to work for myself (I'm an Architect), will that be acceptable in terms of continuous employment history?

And finally, the question that everyone seems to ask - what shift pattern does Ranskill operate?

Cheers guys

Network Rail have 8 none technical skills, so the eight people list is correct.

As for the employment checks, three people on my course at signalling school had come from self employed positions. Wasn't an issue for them.

 

[Highlandspring]

They’ve been posted on this thread before but just to save folk having to trawl back through many pages the eight (8) non technical skills acknowledged by Network Rail are -

1) Attention management: the ability to remain alert and focussed.

2) Communications: the ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both verbally and in writing.

3) Controlled under pressure: the ability to remain calm and cope in emergency or degraded situations.

4) Conscientiousness: the ability to work diligently with a positive attitude and be willing to take responsibility for your own actions.

5) Multi-tasking: the ability to carry out more than one task at a time.

6) Planning and decision making: the ability to anticipate, plan and prioritise work activities.

7) Relationships with others: the ability to work with others in the team and provide support and help when needed.

8) Willingness and ability to learn: the ability and motivation to be trained and to retain and apply information in the work environment.

 

[galaxynew]

They’ve been posted on this thread before but just to save folk having to trawl back through many pages the eight (8) non technical skills acknowledged by Network Rail are -

1) Attention management: the ability to remain alert and focussed.

2) Communications: the ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both verbally and in writing.

3) Controlled under pressure: the ability to remain calm and cope in emergency or degraded situations.

4) Conscientiousness: the ability to work diligently with a positive attitude and be willing to take responsibility for your own actions.

5) Multi-tasking: the ability to carry out more than one task at a time.

6) Planning and decision making: the ability to anticipate, plan and prioritise work activities.

7) Relationships with others: the ability to work with others in the team and provide support and help when needed.

8) Willingness and ability to learn: the ability and motivation to be trained and to retain and apply information in the work environment.

So i presume at interview you will get asked 4 or 5 questions based on these above?

 

[Highlandspring]

No, you’ll be asked a question for each.

 

[Highlandspring]

And not necessarily in that order, I just put them alphabetically! Apart from 4 and 5 which I see now I got mixed up.

 

[galaxynew]

And not necessarily in that order, I just put them alphabetically! Apart from 4 and 5 which I see now I got mixed up.

Cheers for the info

 

[Bob smith]

im as far as this in 1 application. Does it mean im out for assessment 2 or was it a mistake and im still at under consideration?

 

[Tom Quinne]

To be honest mate the only one you really want to be concerned with with is “assessment two pending”, the rest change like the sun and moon.

 

[Tom Quinne]

A new pay deal has been offered by the company, which looks to address the issues of the previous ones.

Highlights include no compulsory redundancies until the end of the two year deal.

South Eastern Allowance to continue for all employees who are eligible, but frozen at the 2020 rate (increased in 2019/20).

Season ticket allowance to increase.

Headline pay increase as previous.

 

[Jaysub]

Did anyone on here get the haslemere job???

got unsuccessful today

 

[BRblue]

A new pay deal has been offered by the company, which looks to address the issues of the previous ones.

Highlights include no compulsory redundancies until the end of the two year deal.

South Eastern Allowance to continue for all employees who are eligible, but frozen at the 2020 rate (increased in 2019/20).

Season ticket allowance to increase.

Headline pay increase as previous.

The South East allowance to be frozen at the current rate... No increase.

 

[Thistley]

Did anyone on here get the haslemere job???

got unsuccessful today

Nope, odd they changed it to 'unsuccessful' immediately after a month of waiting nothing

 

[MidlandsChap]

A new pay deal has been offered by the company, which looks to address the issues of the previous ones.

Highlights include no compulsory redundancies until the end of the two year deal.

South Eastern Allowance to continue for all employees who are eligible, but frozen at the 2020 rate (increased in 2019/20).

Season ticket allowance to increase.

Headline pay increase as previous.

Please can you expand on this one. Why are there compulsory redundanicies?

 

[Tom Quinne]

Please can you expand on this one. Why are there compulsory redundanicies?

There’s a clause which says there won’t be now until the end of the deal in Jan 2021.

 

[MidlandsChap]

There’s a clause which says there won’t be now until the end of the deal in Jan 2021.

I was meaning the underlying reason why redundancies were proposed at all, irrespective of when.
I thought when boxes closed people were re-assigned to another location. Or are they not related to box closures?

 

[Highlandspring]

The pay deal isn’t specific to the signalling grades but redundancies are always theoretically possible when boxes close. Redundancy in the Network Rail conciliatory grades is governed by the PTR&R (Promotion, Transfer, Relocation & Redundancy) agreement which dates back to BR days. I think this offer is 99% likely to be accepted this time round anyway. The most interesting thing for me was the NR has finally agreed to open negotiations with RDG over a privilege leisure concession for all staff.

 

[Bald Rick]

I was meaning the underlying reason why redundancies were proposed at all, irrespective of when.
I thought when boxes closed people were re-assigned to another location. Or are they not related to box closures?

There has been, effectively, a no compulsory redundancies arrangement for a few years. Albeit this is subject to the usual Promotion, transfer and relocation arrangements (which date from the 1960s).

To date all the ‘box closures have been managed through relocation, natural ‘wastage’ and voluntary redundancy. However as the pool of signalling staff gets smaller, and the locations get fewer, this becomes more difficult.

Having said that, the company will always need signallers, and I’d say job security is much better than most other jobs in the wider employment market.

 

[OverTheRails]

Did anyone on here get the haslemere job???

got unsuccessful today

Did you get to the application Under Consideration for assessment 2? Or was it something else before it went to unsuccessful? Which location was it for? Sorry to hear you didn’t make it this time, keep trying

 

[Jaysub]

Did you get to the application Under Consideration for assessment 2? Or was it something else before it went to unsuccessful? Which location was it for? Sorry to hear you didn’t make it this time, keep trying

I had waiting for assessment 2 for a long time then straight to unsucsseful yesterday.
Didnt get no email like before as well.

Last time i also made top 5 and got interview and got told to apply again because i heard someone at the company already had that job at haslemere?

 

[Jaysub]

Nope, odd they changed it to 'unsuccessful' immediately after a month of waiting nothing

Yes especially after waiting for so long for ass 2...i might call up today though as had no email and iv always had that sorry you disnt get the job email...

 

[Tom Quinne]

The pay deal isn’t specific to the signalling grades but redundancies are always theoretically possible when boxes close. Redundancy in the Network Rail conciliatory grades is governed by the PTR&R (Promotion, Transfer, Relocation & Redundancy) agreement which dates back to BR days. I think this offer is 99% likely to be accepted this time round anyway. The most interesting thing for me was the NR has finally agreed to open negotiations with RDG over a privilege leisure concession for all staff.

I did notice that nugget as well, even local TOC travel would be great.

 

[Bald Rick]

I did notice that nugget as well, even local TOC travel would be great.

There’s little chance of RDG agreeing anything on leisure travel until after the Williams review recommendations are implemented.

 

[Highlandspring]

For NR to concede to even start to explore it is a major change of stance.

 

[Tom Quinne]

There’s little chance of RDG agreeing anything on leisure travel until after the Williams review recommendations are implemented.

Once you’ve worked on the railway in a front line role of about 20 minutes you’ll realise using the train is pretty much pointless.

 

[OverTheRails]

I had waiting for assessment 2 for a long time then straight to unsucsseful yesterday.
Didnt get no email like before as well.

Last time i also made top 5 and got interview and got told to apply again because i heard someone at the company already had that job at haslemere?

Very strange!! So you had on the face of it got past the consideration part and were waiting for the assessment 2? There does not seem to be any certainty with these statuses!

 

[Jaysub]

Very strange!! So you had on the face of it got past the consideration part and were waiting for the assessment 2? There does not seem to be any certainty with these statuses!

Phoned recruitment today and they said it got withdrawn due to no activity from managers lol