• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Apprenticeship\first railway job advice

Status
Not open for further replies.

lancededcena

Member
Joined
28 Aug 2013
Messages
93
Location
Colchester, Essex
Hello! Appologies if this is not the correct fourm to ask about this!

I'm wondering if theres any advice on getting my first railway job or an apprenticeship. I'm currently 19 years old and I have finished an Level 3 IT apprenticeship just before the pandemic (so it's very unlucky circumstances) and ever since then I really want to move on to the railways, however I would love it there was some position that utilised parts of my apprenticeship so it doesn't go to waste! Train driving apprenticeships I don't really feel comfortable with at the moment but things to do with telecoms, rolling stock or general station asset management is a really good desire for me.

I applied for a few apprenticeship roles and normal jobs such as the ticket gate assistant that I unfortunately did not pass because of the test. I applied for the Network Rail Telecoms apprenticeship also but they told me my maths grade was no good (4\C grade) but I did apply for an apprenticeship rolling stock engineer for Siemens (Hornsey depot) on the beginning of May, I haven't heard back from them so I'm waiting for that!

Is there any advice or guidence that anyone can give, or what was your first experience like on the railways\how did you get it? I am very interested to see whats in store. By the way, I have autism and I find it slightly difficult to communicate sometimes (not all the times however) so I'm curious what impact would that be.

Really appreciate you guys help on this!
 
Last edited:
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

tiptoptaff

Established Member
Joined
15 Feb 2013
Messages
2,983
Depends where you're based I guess, as to who your local TOCs are and what they offer.

GWR have advertised an IT apprenticeship based in Swindon recently.
 

lancededcena

Member
Joined
28 Aug 2013
Messages
93
Location
Colchester, Essex
Depends where you're based I guess, as to who your local TOCs are and what they offer.

GWR have advertised an IT apprenticeship based in Swindon recently.
My local TOC is Greater Anglia and unfortunately they're the only TOC in my area. They never seem to have any apprenticeships for anything on hand when I checked. Obviously I can go further down towards London but I'm not sure if theres anything good\best chance of getting recently.
 

skyhigh

Established Member
Joined
14 Sep 2014
Messages
5,219
Might be worth having a look at Network Rail roles as well.
 
Joined
16 Oct 2011
Messages
212
My local TOC is Greater Anglia and unfortunately they're the only TOC in my area. They never seem to have any apprenticeships for anything on hand when I checked. Obviously I can go further down towards London but I'm not sure if theres anything good\best chance of getting recently.
My local TOC is GA as well, however I started out as an operational apprentice with London Underground just before I turned 18, you get a taste of everything and then put in to a station role at the end of it. It was good to do, that could be worth a look
 

lancededcena

Member
Joined
28 Aug 2013
Messages
93
Location
Colchester, Essex
My local TOC is GA as well, however I started out as an operational apprentice with London Underground just before I turned 18, you get a taste of everything and then put in to a station role at the end of it. It was good to do, that could be worth a look
Thank you! I was eyeing that Level 3 IT Solutions Apprenticeship but I wasn't sure if I was eligable for it since I've completed a IT Infrastructure apprenticeship but I sent them over a quick register of interest in their website, hopefully I hear back from them!
Might be worth having a look at Network Rail roles as well.
I had a look at that too. I can't do the Network Rail engineering apprenticeship since my maths qualification was too low (4 which is a C in the old system). But there is a Level 2 Operations Apprenticeship that I'm eyeing on too and one of the placements are in my local station. Not sure how I feel about signalling though as that's mostly a signalling apprenticeship, but it doesn't hurt to try!
 

507002

Member
Joined
26 Jan 2019
Messages
6
Hello! Appologies if this is not the correct fourm to ask about this!

I'm wondering if theres any advice on getting my first railway job or an apprenticeship. I'm currently 19 years old and I have finished an Level 3 IT apprenticeship just before the pandemic (so it's very unlucky circumstances) and ever since then I really want to move on to the railways, however I would love it there was some position that utilised parts of my apprenticeship so it doesn't go to waste! Train driving apprenticeships I don't really feel comfortable with at the moment but things to do with telecoms, rolling stock or general station asset management is a really good desire for me.

I applied for a few apprenticeship roles and normal jobs such as the ticket gate assistant that I unfortunately did not pass because of the test. I applied for the Network Rail Telecoms apprenticeship also but they told me my maths grade was no good (4\C grade) but I did apply for an apprenticeship rolling stock engineer for Siemens (Hornsey depot) on the beginning of May, I haven't heard back from them so I'm waiting for that!

Is there any advice or guidence that anyone can give, or what was your first experience like on the railways\how did you get it? I am very interested to see whats in store. By the way, I have autism and I find it slightly difficult to communicate sometimes (not all the times however) so I'm curious what impact would that be.

Really appreciate you guys help on this!
My first job on the Railway was Revenue protection and moved TOC best choice I did. Perks are honestly good with pay (Depending what TOC you're in) I will tell you this though, it can be really hard getting into the railway so do some googling and write it down incase you get a interview. Best of luck! 8-)
 
Joined
16 Oct 2011
Messages
212
Thank you! I was eyeing that Level 3 IT Solutions Apprenticeship but I wasn't sure if I was eligable for it since I've completed a IT Infrastructure apprenticeship but I sent them over a quick register of interest in their website, hopefully I hear back from them!
I think apprenticeships usually open around October time, it's definitely every year though
 

lancededcena

Member
Joined
28 Aug 2013
Messages
93
Location
Colchester, Essex
Thank you for all your suggestions,

I've contacted Siemens as they still haven't got back to me after a month but fingers crossed on that one. I'd think I'll have to wait until September again to really get more apprenticeships along the way.

I've been also looking at some training programmes and wonder if they would be any use to me, although they seem to be pricey and I'm not sure what will happen after I complete one. I did see a traineeship pop up and it was free as well so I think that could be of interest to me, the issue is the flexibility as I already got August booked in for my week break, so I'll think I'll apply in September (if they are usually flexible with the times, please let me know!)

Any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top