Commercial Guard training starts Monday!!

[Chris1978]

I'm starting my commercial guard training this Monday reporting in for a HR induction day where I assume I will get a outline of what the next couple of months will look like.

Just a few questions dont know if any guards past present or future or anyone else on here can help?

I'm told the training will be Monday to Friday largely classroom based, will the working days be like a office day 0800-1600/0900-1700 etc, just curious as we have always worked childcare around my shift timings in the past.
Also will the training continue over bank holidays? I'm guessing we may be stood down.

Finally what is the dress code? I'm thinking smart but dont want to turn up in my best clobber if everyone else is dressed like its casual Friday!

 

[Chumba]

Sorry can’t answer the questions, but well done for finally getting there !

 

[Mag_seven]

I'm starting my commercial guard training this Monday reporting in for a HR induction day where I assume I will get a outline of what the next couple of months will look like.

Just a few questions dont know if any guards past present or future or anyone else on here can help?

I'm told the training will be Monday to Friday largely classroom based, will the working days be like a office day 0800-1600/0900-1700 etc, just curious as we have always worked childcare around my shift timings in the past.
Also will the training continue over bank holidays? I'm guessing we may be stood down.

Finally what is the dress code? I'm thinking smart but dont want to turn up in my best clobber if everyone else is dressed like its casual Friday!

It might be a good idea to tell us for which TOC this is for so that those employed by that TOC can answer your questions.

 

[grumblingalong]

It might be a good idea to tell us for which TOC this is for so that those employed by that TOC can answer your questions.

"Commercial Guard" would suggest SWR as I believe they're the only ones to use the title

 

[Hibbidee]

I have just finished my training with SWR as a commerical guard. The classroom based training takes place at basingstoke ROC, with your day starting at 0845 and finishing around 1630. Some days you will get away early and some late but it all balances out. Bank holidays you are off and there are two days scheduled into the training that are taken as annual leave so you don't turn up at depot with loads of leave to take. Dress code is smart so shirt and tie, its only for around a week until your uniform turns up at the ROC.

 

[Twotwo]

I have just finished my training with SWR as a commerical guard. The classroom based training takes place at basingstoke ROC, with your day starting at 0845 and finishing around 1630. Some days you will get away early and some late but it all balances out. Bank holidays you are off and there are two days scheduled into the training that are taken as annual leave so you don't turn up at depot with loads of leave to take. Dress code is smart so shirt and tie, its only for around a week until your uniform turns up at the ROC.

Out of curiosity, what does the classroom training consist off? Is it the same traction learning as drivers?

 

[Hibbidee]

Out of curiosity, what does the classroom training consist off? Is it the same traction learning as drivers?

I'm unsure what the drivers do for their classroom training as we didn't really mix. The first week is all customer service so conflict and disability awareness and all that good stuff. Then moving on to PTS and signalling, a few station visits and visit to a signal box. Then accidents/emergency procedures and out of course working (stop shorts/overshoots)and short circuit bar training. Then its a bunch of traction training taking place on the trains it comes in as 36 days of actual training followed by commercial course which is two weeks and route learning which depends on your depot and routes to how long it takes.

 

[Chris1978]

It might be a good idea to tell us for which TOC this is for so that those employed by that TOC can answer your questions.

My bad still new to all this I'll be working for SWR.

I have just finished my training with SWR as a commerical guard. The classroom based training takes place at basingstoke ROC, with your day starting at 0845 and finishing around 1630. Some days you will get away early and some late but it all balances out. Bank holidays you are off and there are two days scheduled into the training that are taken as annual leave so you don't turn up at depot with loads of leave to take. Dress code is smart so shirt and tie, its only for around a week until your uniform turns up at the ROC.

Thanks that's pretty much the info I was looking for.
Are the two annual leave days rostered for you or can you select when you take them?

I'm unsure what the drivers do for their classroom training as we didn't really mix. The first week is all customer service so conflict and disability awareness and all that good stuff. Then moving on to PTS and signalling, a few station visits and visit to a signal box. Then accidents/emergency procedures and out of course working (stop shorts/overshoots)and short circuit bar training. Then its a bunch of traction training taking place on the trains it comes in as 36 days of actual training followed by commercial course which is two weeks and route learning which depends on your depot and routes to how long it takes.

So about 12 weeks in total? That's more or less what I expected.

 

[Chris1978]

Also wanted to ask - I have several holiday dates already booked through the year, in previous employment when starting the employer has always honoured any pre-booked leave dates, I'm assuming this will be the same with SWR or does this present any issues?

 

[Hibbidee]

Also wanted to ask - I have several holiday dates already booked through the year, in previous employment when starting the employer has always honoured any pre-booked leave dates, I'm assuming this will be the same with SWR or does this present any issues?

I contacted HR before starting who cleared it I just had to remind my guards manager when I met them. The two days of leave during training are rostered into the course so no picking i'm afraid but both of mine were on a Friday so had a couple of long weekends which was nice.

 

[Chris1978]

I contacted HR before starting who cleared it I just had to remind my guards manager when I met them. The two days of leave during training are rostered into the course so no picking i'm afraid but both of mine were on a Friday so had a couple of long weekends which was nice.

I told them I had leave booked and gave a rough outline of when it was but have yet to confirm dates and I have also booked more time through the year prior to the SWR job offer so hopefully wont be any issues getting the dates approved.

The rostered leave is something that concerns me a little, I really need the bulk of my leave to be during school holidays and I tend to book blocks of time as in 1-2 weeks off, so having random days selected for me isnt any good to me really, I rely on getting certain time off though the year to cater for childcare/family commitments.

 

[Stigy]

I told them I had leave booked and gave a rough outline of when it was but have yet to confirm dates and I have also booked more time through the year prior to the SWR job offer so hopefully wont be any issues getting the dates approved.

The rostered leave is something that concerns me a little, I really need the bulk of my leave to be during school holidays and I tend to book blocks of time as in 1-2 weeks off, so having random days selected for me isnt any good to me really, I rely on getting certain time off though the year to cater for childcare/family commitments.

Rostered leave won’t be random days, it’ll be in blocks of one or two weeks depending on how SWR work it out throughout the year. Individual as-hoc days can be booked as and when. If you’re allocated weeks which aren’t convenient, I’d imagine there’d be people willing to swap?

 

[Chris1978]

Rostered leave won’t be random days, it’ll be in blocks of one or two weeks depending on how SWR work it out throughout the year. Individual as-hoc days can be booked as and when. If you’re allocated weeks which aren’t convenient, I’d imagine there’d be people willing to swap?

How much of a headache is it to swap dates though? I know there will be a good amount of people who likely want time off outside of school hols which will be useful to me. If it's a fairly quick and easy process to exchange dates then that's fine.

 

[Hibbidee]

How much of a headache is it to swap dates though? I know there will be a good amount of people who likely want time off outside of school hols which will be useful to me. If it's a fairly quick and easy process to exchange dates then that's fine.

Yes the process is easy, you find a person willing to swap fill in a form and hand it in

 

[Stigy]

How much of a headache is it to swap dates though? I know there will be a good amount of people who likely want time off outside of school hols which will be useful to me. If it's a fairly quick and easy process to exchange dates then that's fine.

I’ll be quite blunt here, but even if it’s not that easy, what can you do about it? Unfortunately sometimes you have to make a sacrifice. Your previous job in Security was convenient, but the money was rubbish and there were little or at least very few perks I’d imagine? Longterm, a career on the railway is leaps and bounds above anything the security industry could ever offer. You won’t regret this move I’m sure.

My advice is to cross that bridge when you come to it. You need to put a lot of your own time and effort in to your training for a few months. You don’t want to have things like leave on your mind.

 

[Chris1978]

Yes the process is easy, you find a person willing to swap fill in a form and hand it in

Cheers pal that's nice and simple, Im assuming there's a quick and easy way of contacting everyone to see who will trade dates like a group email or so forth?

I’ll be quite blunt here, but even if it’s not that easy, what can you do about it? Unfortunately sometimes you have to make a sacrifice. Your previous job in Security was convenient, but the money was rubbish and there were little or at least very few perks I’d imagine? Longterm, a career on the railway is leaps and bounds above anything the security industry could ever offer. You won’t regret this move I’m sure.

My advice is to cross that bridge when you come to it. You need to put a lot of your own time and effort in to your training for a few months. You don’t want to have things like leave on your mind.

I will be 100% focused on my training but I'm just trying to iron out any potential hurdles I may have to face, this is my first job on the railways and it's all new to me so I'm just trying to figure out the lay of the land as much as I can early on.

My golden rule is my family comes first so while this is a great career move and much better than working in the security industry for sure I do have to consider how much it will impact my home life and not being able to just select the leave dates that I need is quite a big impact and not something I've encountered before in previous jobs. Like I say not necessarily a problem just trying to figure out how it all works.

 

[Fratton Guard?]

Hi, I got the phone call in December 2019 that I had passed my interview for SWR Commercial Guard at Fratton and was told to wait for a medical and start date, probably round April or May. Due to lockdown this has obviously been put on hold for the time being, but I was wondering if anyone out there has heard anything about when Medicals and training at Basingstoke is likely to resume. Tried to phone recruitment but I get cut off after 3 rings so am assuming that they are working from home. Thanks in advance for any advice or info. Cheers

 

[J3053B]

Hi, I got the phone call in December 2019 that I had passed my interview for SWR Commercial Guard at Fratton and was told to wait for a medical and start date, probably round April or May. Due to lockdown this has obviously been put on hold for the time being, but I was wondering if anyone out there has heard anything about when Medicals and training at Basingstoke is likely to resume. Tried to phone recruitment but I get cut off after 3 rings so am assuming that they are working from home. Thanks in advance for any advice or info. Cheers

Firstly congratulations.

Training has resumed for guards and drivers but I believe at half the size they were (class size). Obviously only for people who were in training at the time of lockdown.

If it continues at that then I can only assume training will take twice as long.

However with the government announcing another easing and obviously relaxing of 2m rule this should expedite your process.

 

[Chumba]

Hi, I got the phone call in December 2019 that I had passed my interview for SWR Commercial Guard at Fratton and was told to wait for a medical and start date, probably round April or May. Due to lockdown this has obviously been put on hold for the time being, but I was wondering if anyone out there has heard anything about when Medicals and training at Basingstoke is likely to resume. Tried to phone recruitment but I get cut off after 3 rings so am assuming that they are working from home. Thanks in advance for any advice or info. Cheers

Friend of mine had her interview 18 December and was told 19 December she had passed the interview. She was also told that that there were no immediate vacancies, and they would look to have Vacancies around June 2020. they said they would contact her around that time to arrange medical and confirm the next steps. She’s not heard anything yet.

 

[GemGem]

You get a block of spring leave (1 week) summer leave (2 weeks) and winter leave (1 week) these are rostered to you. You get 11 days ( I think) ad hoc to take but you have to put in a request for these.

 

[Fratton Guard?]

Thankyou J and Chumba, I was told I'd passed on 19 December as well. Finger crossed for a quick start. Thanks again

 

[Fratton Guard?]

Friend of mine had her interview 18 December and was told 19 December she had passed the interview. She was also told that that there were no immediate vacancies, and they would look to have Vacancies around June 2020. they said they would contact her around that time to arrange medical and confirm the next steps. She’s not heard anything yet.

Hi Chumba, I got a call from Recruitment on Friday, so thought you may want to pass this info onto your friend who hadn't heard anything yet.

Training has resumed but as suspected only for those who were in the process before the lockdown. They said it was hoped that with social distancing measures in place that they should be through training by late September to early October and training for those waiting would start from then. Candidates would be in the que that they were in before, so a start date would be depend on what station they were going to and the urgency for guards there.

Hope this is of Help.

 

[Chumba]

Hi Chumba, I got a call from Recruitment on Friday, so thought you may want to pass this info onto your friend who hadn't heard anything yet.

Training has resumed but as suspected only for those who were in the process before the lockdown. They said it was hoped that with social distancing measures in place that they should be through training by late September to early October and training for those waiting would start from then. Candidates would be in the que that they were in before, so a start date would be depend on what station they were going to and the urgency for guards there.

Hope this is of Help.

Thanks I’ll let her know, she applied for Fratton, as yourself.