EMR - Trainee Depot Drivers - Derby and Nottingham Talent Pool

KyleJMilne · 26 Jan 2020

Dynamonic said:
GCSE grade C would be acceptable, yes.

When the apprenticeship was first introduced in 2018, EMR would support you in achieving any of the required Level 2 qualifications in English, Maths and ICT.
Prior to the apprenticeship scheme being introduced, no formal qualifications were required for the role.

It appears that EMR have now tightened up the qualification requirements by stating that only the gaining of a Level 2 ICT qualification will be supported. This is likely because, a) Many older candidates may have no formal ICT qualifications and, b) The attempt to gain multiple formal qualifications on top of your Driver training is a lot of hard work.

Another thing to keep in mind is that some people were put into the Talent Pool before

Dynamonic said:
GCSE grade C would be acceptable, yes.

When the apprenticeship was first introduced in 2018, EMR would support you in achieving any of the required Level 2 qualifications in English, Maths and ICT.
Prior to the apprenticeship scheme being introduced, no formal qualifications were required for the role.

It appears that EMR have now tightened up the qualification requirements by stating that only the gaining of a Level 2 ICT qualification will be supported. This is likely because, a) Many older candidates may have no formal ICT qualifications and, b) The attempt to gain multiple formal qualifications on top of your Driver training is a lot of hard work.

Another thing to keep in mind is that some people were put into the Talent Pool before the apprenticeship scheme began, but started after.

Interesting, so the course would no longer be an option, well for ICT only.

RailUK Forums

Lopez · 26 Jan 2020

Dynamonic said:
Well done to all of you who have made it to Stage One! The ball is very much in your court now, and you have every chance of going all the way through the process if you dedicate yourself totally to it.
Just work hard, and revise, revise, revise and you will go far!

For those of you that didn’t make it this time, don’t lose heart! Look through your application and find out where you can improve for next time, for which there WILL be a next time. It takes many people multiple attempts to secure these highly sought after roles, so never give up! The dream only ends when you say it does.

Good luck!

Well I don't think I'll be going for it again as my stage 1 opc results expire at the end of this year, I resubmitted exactly the same application that got me through to stage 1 before and still got rejected this time. I put my heart and soul into the application before and feel that I cannot improve it to be honest. Nerves got the better of me on the stage 2 assessment day and now I'm thinking that's that really. Good luck to all those who did get through the sift this time.

paully617 · 26 Jan 2020

Hi all,
I recieved an email thanking me for applying and saying that I have been shortlisted.
What tests will be in the stage one assessment please so I can start preparing?

papajo · 27 Jan 2020

Hello guys, so it's my first time ever applying to such a job and I am a total newbie posting this in hope that you will enlighten me..

So I got shortlisted and they will give me a date to attend for an assessment test.

My questions are these: lets assume I pass all 4 stages how likely is it that I will get an actual job within the following months?

I will join as a trainee right? how long does this phase last? Also the salary mentioned in this EMR listing is the trainee salary or the final salary I will get as a depot train driver at EMR ?

Dynamonic · 27 Jan 2020

paully617 said:
Hi all,
I recieved an email thanking me for applying and saying that I have been shortlisted.
What tests will be in the stage one assessment please so I can start preparing?

Hi there paully617,

Stage 1 is made up of the paper assessments that make up Part 1 of the OPC Train Driver Assessment. These paper exercises include:

Group Bourdon
Trainability for Rules and Procedures Parts 1 and 2. (TRP)
Test of Everyday Attention for Occupational Assessment Parts 1, 2 and 3. (TEA-Occ)

You should shortly receive practice material for these tests, and there’s some handy tips on this very forum, in particular the threads pinned at the top of the page.

papajo said:
Hello guys, so it's my first time ever applying to such a job and I am a total newbie posting this in hope that you will enlighten me..
So I got shortlisted and they will give me a date to attend for an assessment test.

My questions are these: lets assume I pass all 4 stages how likely is it that I will get an actual job within the following months?

I will join as a trainee right? how long does this phase last? Also the salary mentioned in this EMR listing is the trainee salary or the final salary I will get as a depot train driver at EMR ?

Hi there papajo,

Once successful, you’ll be held in a Talent Pool position which is normally valid for 2 years. You may be issued with a start date at any time whilst you’re in the Talent Pool. Whilst being in a Talent Pool is not a guarantee in itself of being offered a role, EMR generally only fill their Depot Driver Talent Pool with people they expect will be needed.

The Trainee salary of £29,345 is paid throughout your classroom, traction and mentoring period, which is normally about 16 weeks. After this, you will go up to the full qualified rate of £39,126.

papajo · 27 Jan 2020

Dynamonic said:
Once successful, you’ll be held in a Talent Pool position which is normally valid for 2 years. You may be issued with a start date at any time whilst you’re in the Talent Pool. Whilst being in a Talent Pool is not a guarantee in itself of being offered a role, EMR generally only fill their Depot Driver Talent Pool with people they expect will be needed.

thanks a lot for your response! Well that I understood I just asked if there is somebody who could say something out of his experience about what the usual waiting time is in such cases e.g ok its up to 2 years but do indeed most of the people in the talent pool wait that much? like in average or what is normally expected realistically

I would like to ask and additional question about the salaries as well, when I googled average traindriver salaries in the uk it came to be 60-65k pounds so I wonder does EMR not pay that good in general or is it the nature of the position (depot ) that pays less?

Dynamonic · 27 Jan 2020

papajo said:
thanks a lot for your response! Well that I understood I just asked if there is somebody who could say something out of his experience about what the usual waiting time is in such cases e.g ok its up to 2 years but do indeed most of the people in the talent pool wait that much? like in average or what is normally expected realistically

I would like to ask and additional question about the salaries as well, when I googled average traindriver salaries in the uk it came to be 60-65k pounds so I wonder does EMR not pay that good in general or is it the nature of the position (depot ) that pays less?

Your length of stay in the Talent Pool really can vary. I was in it for six months before I got the call, but I know some who were in it for the full two years, and some who got their start date the same day they were put in the Talent Pool. The important thing is to try and live a normal life whilst you’re waiting.

Regarding the salary, it is what it is because of the nature of the Depot Driver role. The mainline driver role is a different role entirely, and so the pay reflects that. The Depot Driver role is essentially a ‘stepping stone’ role to mainline driving, and the progression and training structure reflects that.

AllThatJazz · 28 Jan 2020

Hi all,

I have been shortlisted for this post. I have stage 1 testing in February. I want to be as prepared as possible and this forum seems like an excellent start.

I have a few questions:

1. I understand that I will not have a formal interview at stage 1? This is just the first stage of assessment. As such I should focus my practice on:

Group Bourdon paper test
TEA-Occ paper test
TRP

?

If I pass this stage I move on to the next stage and then my focus will be on vigilance tests etc?

2. I have downloaded the Group Bourdon test program from this forum. Do you recommend any other resources for me to consider? I am happy to pay for useful materials. Also am I required to or should I know basics about train operation beforehand? (I feel daft asking that)

3. Does anyone have any resources regarding medicals and requirements I can look at?

Thanks for your time and good luck all.

Spankthemonkey · 28 Jan 2020

AllThatJazz said:
Hi all,

I have been shortlisted for this post. I have stage 1 testing in February. I want to be as prepared as possible and this forum seems like an excellent start.

I have a few questions:

1. I understand that I will not have a formal interview at stage 1? This is just the first stage of assessment. As such I should focus my practice on:

Group Bourdon paper test

TEA-Occ paper test

TRP

?

If I pass this stage I move on to the next stage and then my focus will be on vigilance tests etc?

2. I have downloaded the Group Bourdon test program from this forum. Do you recommend any other resources for me to consider? I am happy to pay for useful materials. Also am I required to or should I know basics about train operation beforehand? (I feel daft asking that)

3. Does anyone have any resources regarding medicals and requirements I can look at?

Thanks for your time and good luck all.

Print the gbt off and do it on paper

Spankthemonkey · 28 Jan 2020

KyleJMilne said:
What's the criteria in terms of maths and english grades, my understanding was a grade C, (or level 2 as I believe its called now) is required , I know of a person that is a depot driver that got through with a D grade (level 1), given the chance to get the required grade via a 3 day course , is this common practise?

The "bonus" is of course that if you keep failing it you get yet another week off trains on full pay to "try again", I mean really really try again lol....

Spankthemonkey · 28 Jan 2020

paully617 said:
Hi all,
I recieved an email thanking me for applying and saying that I have been shortlisted.
What tests will be in the stage one assessment please so I can start preparing?

Read the entire thread from three years ago, it's about 1500 posts long but will see you right.

mr_chris · 29 Jan 2020

Hey guys and girls!
I too have been shortlisted for selection (on my 2nd attempt of application). I've just done my first proper paper attempt at the GBT after several poor attempts on the pc version. Scanned through 1468 cells, making 7 mistakes in total. Any idea if this would be acceptable at all?
Cheers
Chris.

Spankthemonkey · 30 Jan 2020

mr_chris said:
Hey guys and girls!
I too have been shortlisted for selection (on my 2nd attempt of application). I've just done my first proper paper attempt at the GBT after several poor attempts on the pc version. Scanned through 1468 cells, making 7 mistakes in total. Any idea if this would be acceptable at all?
Cheers
Chris.

No idea. With emr it's not a set gbt pass mark, you've got to pass everything in stage 1 (not difficult) AND be in probably the top 25% of scores in the gbt of all the 500 stage 1 candidates to get through to stage 2. It's all about the gbt with emr, heard recently they believe there is a direct correlation between people who do exceptionally well on the gbt and those who don't have incidents as drivers.
The paper test is 5 pages of 20 lines of loads of dots, 2 minutes per page. I think most of us that got through were hitting lines 11 on ever sheet with virtually no mistakes.

SEASBIGBURY19 · 3 Feb 2020

Hey,
So I have already sat and passed Stage 1 and 2 driving tests with A different TOC. I’ve been told I’m through to the assessment day, does anyone know what that entails?

EMR - Trainee Depot Drivers - Derby and Nottingham Talent Pool

KyleJMilne

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RailUK Forums

Lopez

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paully617

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papajo

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Dynamonic

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papajo

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Dynamonic

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AllThatJazz

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Spankthemonkey

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Spankthemonkey

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Spankthemonkey

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mr_chris

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Spankthemonkey

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SEASBIGBURY19

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