First Great Western - Trainee Drivers

[SkinnyDave]

One of the guards at our place is waiting on a date, once he is given a date I'll let you know on here

 

[tlionhart]

One of the guards at our place is waiting on a date, once he is given a date I'll let you know on here

Thanks!

The HR offices are probably finishing up around about now for the holidays. Every working day passes without that phone call we've all been waiting for. Still time today and 3 days left next week...then that's it. I would say the waiting recommences in Jan.

 

[jaarus]

I remember back when I applied for this role.....all those many moons ago.... that I was told of people for whom the training/selection process took YEARS to complete.

I, like most (I suspect), took this with a pinch of salt as nothing more than tall tales with the underlying message of 'be more patient'.



HOWEVER.... here I am again on the forum.
Why?

Well, despite me originally applying at the beginning of August 2013.... passing telephone interview and Stage 1 in September 2013 and then hearing nothing at all - I chased but just was told to await the next dates (that is despite EVERYONE I sat with ('johncleesefan' springs to mind if he is still on here?) all coasted through to the next stage (lucky b*stards hehe).... my 'next date' never materialised.

Well low and behold I now have an email inviting me to choose a date to attend Stage 1 in January (hmmm, again? I think my pass should still be in effect? -will try and call them on Monday in the hopes that someone is in LOL!)
But that's good news regardless - even if it is now knocking on for 17 months since I applied - hahaha

 

[tlionhart]

Well low and behold I now have an email inviting me to choose a date to attend Stage 1 in January (hmmm, again? I think my pass should still be in effect? -will try and call them on Monday in the hopes that someone is in LOL!)
But that's good news regardless - even if it is now knocking on for 17 months since I applied - hahaha

Congratulations Jaarus. I remember when you applied as my application has been active just as long and from Aug 13.

You may have to unfortunately re-do the whole process again. I had my stage 1 in OCT when they just changed everything. So I went into the TEA-OCC test blind, as nobody on here at the time had done these new tests. FIRST sent out an email stating everyone will be required to do this new process.
Unless in the time you've done some elements including the tea occ with another carrier then you may well not need to do them.

As far as I'm aware, you will be required to do the following;
- group bourdon
- TEA OCC
- TRP 1 (dials test) & TRP 2 (glop test)
- written communication (when I did mine, I did it on stage 2. I was the odd one out as the other candidates had already done it in stage 1. They did their stage 1 in Dec. I only did my stage 2 later as I couldn't attend it when it was first offered.)

Great thing is you've done these tests already, so you'll be fine and hopefully have a chance to deliver a better performance then before.

This is good news to hear the ball is rolling again. I still think it won't be until FEB or even early March most of us in hold will hear something.

Just goes to show, patience is certainly required!

What depot did you apply for?
Still worth contacting them to find out what you will be doing? Seems a bit unfair. Who knows, may be a condensed stage 1? Like just the bits to fill the assessment gap.

 

[Johncleesefan]

hey jaarus, im still on here
congratulations on hearing from them and having a date set.
i would contact them as i sat the same stage 1 as you which was:
.group bourdon
.trp 1 and 2

my stage 2 was the new style so included the written communication and the TEA OCC.

Could be wrong though and you might have to re do.

They kept you waiting a while ey

 

[tlionhart]

hey jaarus, im still on here
congratulations on hearing from them and having a date set.
i would contact them as i sat the same stage 1 as you which was:
.group bourdon
.trp 1 and 2

my stage 2 was the new style so included the written communication and the TEA OCC.

Could be wrong though and you might have to re do.

They kept you waiting a while ey

That's a good point! Come to think about it, the other candidates did the TEA OCC and I went and done the Written test.
It would seem logical to do it this way, that way you wouldn't need to re-do the bourdon and TRP tests.
Let us know how you get on!

 

[387star]

Deleted

 

[tlionhart]

If it offers any reassurance, most of us that are on hold have 6 months left. The latest ones to be placed onto hold prob have a few months extra. I have until April to find out.
Having said all that, it's been known for First to completely go against that time strain and offer assessments and interviews to candidates. Usually comes to them when they least expect it and usually when they are working for another TOC. Seems they can do what they want and the timescales are just there as a buffer.
Well it's going to be an interesting winter/spring. We all have our money on March, but we'll see...

 

[Johncleesefan]

I think its the conflicting information which im sure you have had too. verbally on the phone i have been told the job is mine and i will start next year around jan/march. officially i am on hold with until july to hear news otherwise its game over and back to square one. my fingers are crossed for first thing jan to get some news now

 

[oxoneil]

I think its the conflicting information which im sure you have had too. verbally on the phone i have been told the job is mine and i will start next year around jan/march. officially i am on hold with until july to hear news otherwise its game over and back to square one. my fingers are crossed for first thing jan to get some news now

I'm really surprised they said that, were those the words used or your interpretation of what they actually said?

 

[SPADTrap]

I'm successful internally and now on hold

I contacted HR to get more information and received this email:


[I

Thank you for your email. I can see that you have been added to a hold list
for the trainee train driver role in Bristol after interview, if more
positions become available for this role within 6 months we we get in
contact with you to progress your application further. [B]If the role comes up
after 6 months you will need to re-apply for this

Unfortunately we have no timescales for this.[/I]

As we all know six months is an incredibly tight time frame

Some of you have waited years to be called forward if not with FGW at least with other companies so is this a new policy? Or perhaps to be optimistic it is highly likely they anticipate vacancies in the next six months. Qualified positions remain advertised

Hold for 6 months then reapply? First Group recruitment is frustrating at best.

 

[387star]

Hold for 6 months then reapply? First Group recruitment is frustrating at best.

Perhaps it is saying if vacancies come available as expected then I can stay on hold for longer who knows

 

[Johncleesefan]

I'm really surprised they said that, were those the words used or your interpretation of what they actually said?

maybe thats what im convincing myself was said now. but yeh she said that and that the corrosponding email would look like bad news but it was just the wording.

 

[oxoneil]

I've never actually spoken to anyone on the phone since I did my application, I was on holiday in Italy when I received the email you describe.

 

[Johncleesefan]

oh man, i wonder if next week is the week, first school week of the new year

 

[tlionhart]

oh man, i wonder if next week is the week, first school week of the new year

Hahahaha glad it's not just me hoping that!!

 

[Maybe]

I cannot imagine we will hear anything until well in the new year to be honest

 

[387star]

Hi

out of interest do FGW require an enhanced assessment score as they used to reject borderline passes although I think they are not as strict as TPE? However not accepting borderline is not necessarily hand in hand with only accepting enhanced

I recently found this on the forum which is an interesting read:

The rail industry has recently introduced new Trainee Trainee Train driver assessments.

With the old process FTPE always adopted enhanced assessment scores, above the minimum standard, as did many other Train Operating Company.

With the new process FTPE have simply adopted the same principle, they have requirements above the minimum standard. At the moment this is not broken into Borderline Pass, Pass, Good Pass as the old process but is simply have the scores met the enhanced standard of FTPE.

if the six month reassessment window has passed applicants can retake the assessments through FTPE

So assessment scores are not shown up in terms of category as they used to be but operators then look into the scores to check if they meet an enhanced criteria

 

[Rocombe11]

FGW don't require the enhanced pass, so you can pass for FGW but fail for FTPE, personally I think FTPE use it as part of the sift process.

 

[Maybe]

Out of interest what do scotrail use?

 

[oxoneil]

Although I'm an outsider waiting to get in I have a feeling (correct me if I'm wrong) that this thread http://railchat.co.uk/RChat-Forum/showthread.php?tid=20 has a lot to do with the hold up.

With the latest email saying "We are waiting confirmation of the Work Force Plan for each region of the business" then it's no surprise there is huge uncertainty about where things are going. Add this to the still live adverts for qualified HSS drivers for Bristol and Reading you can probably see that the plight of us waiting for news is waaaaaay down the list of priorities.

There's clearly a lot hinging on negotiations on Sundays being in or out of the normal working week etc but there's just one thing which I still don't truly understand and that is why they were still recruiting 18 months ago when they knew these subjects were looming ahead.

Anyway, as an outsider trying to get a grip with an alien industry, that thread is slowly answering some questions. No wonder when people enquire about application progress and future training they don't get a very detailed reply cos it must be so complicated to try to fully explain would likely be impossible.

Anyway, Happy New Year to all other "on holders" and let's hope we hear something one way or another soon.

 

[455driver]

Although I'm an outsider waiting to get in I have a feeling (correct me if I'm wrong) that this thread http://railchat.co.uk/RChat-Forum/showthread.php?tid=20 has a lot to do with the hold up.

With the latest email saying "We are waiting confirmation of the Work Force Plan for each region of the business" then it's no surprise there is huge uncertainty about where things are going. Add this to the still live adverts for qualified HSS drivers for Bristol and Reading you can probably see that the plight of us waiting for news is waaaaaay down the list of priorities.

There's clearly a lot hinging on negotiations on Sundays being in or out of the normal working week etc but there's just one thing which I still don't truly understand and that is why they were still recruiting 18 months ago when they knew these subjects were looming ahead.

Anyway, as an outsider trying to get a grip with an alien industry, that thread is slowly answering some questions. No wonder when people enquire about application progress and future training they don't get a very detailed reply cos it must be so complicated to try to fully explain would likely be impossible.

Anyway, Happy New Year to all other "on holders" and let's hope we hear something one way or another soon.

That link is useless unless you are a member of railchat (or BR was best and everybody who has joined since privatisation isnt a proper railwayman.com, as I like to call it )

 

[oxoneil]

If you're already an employee then you won't need to read it as you'll already know about the content, if you're not ( and have no inter forum axe to grind) then you'll probably join the forum and read it. My post was primarily aimed at us outsiders who have no idea what is going on in your world.

 

[Rocombe11]

Oxoneil, which email was that, I have received nothing since July stating that there may be vacancies early 2015.

 

[455driver]

If you're already an employee then you won't need to read it as you'll already know about the content, if you're not ( and have no inter forum axe to grind) then you'll probably join the forum and read it. My post was primarily aimed at us outsiders who have no idea what is going on in your world.

I take it numbers have fallen over there, hence the need to encourage people to join!
You could have just cut and pasted the relevant content over to here!

 

[oxoneil]

Oxoneil, which email was that, I have received nothing since July stating that there may be vacancies early 2015.

I just sent one a few months ago asking what was going on.

 

[Rocombe11]

I just sent one a few months ago asking what was going on.

Ok, thanks for that.

 

[oxoneil]

I take it numbers have fallen over there, hence the need to encourage people to join!
You could have just cut and pasted the relevant content over to here!

What all 15 pages of it, I don't think so. If anyone who is still trying to get a job they'll probably be sufficiently interested in the contents to join the other forum and read it.

 

[Johncleesefan]

I've had a read on that forum. What exactly is DOO

 

[SkinnyDave]

I've had a read on that forum. What exactly is DOO

Driver only operation ie no guard!!