leomartin125
Member
Hi all,
I'm 17 and would love to become a driver with GWR in the future driving the Class 800 which would be my ultimate goal. I was going to go into an Operations Apprenticeship with GWR at 18 and then hopefully get offered a full time station job (dispatching trains or customer service most likely) and from there, once I'm 21, apply for any trainee driver roles that come up.
However, I spoke to a driver at Reading today who drives the Class 165/166 Turbo's and he mentioned how he was going to train up on the Class 387 with GWR once it enters service in the next year or so. He told me that GWR already have many drivers ready for training in the new stock and that recruiting new drivers is not something GWR would want to do until Control Period 6 when the GWML is fully electrified. Instead of going for the GWR Operations Apprenticeship, he told me to go in for a Network Rail Signalling Apprenticeship of some sort and then gain experience in that sector before applying for a trainee driver role with previous signalling experience.
What is everyone's view of this? Which route should I go down?
1). Operations Apprenticeship with GWR then job with GWR until 21
OR
2). Signalling Apprenticeship with NR then job with NR until 21
Thanks,
Leo
I'm 17 and would love to become a driver with GWR in the future driving the Class 800 which would be my ultimate goal. I was going to go into an Operations Apprenticeship with GWR at 18 and then hopefully get offered a full time station job (dispatching trains or customer service most likely) and from there, once I'm 21, apply for any trainee driver roles that come up.
However, I spoke to a driver at Reading today who drives the Class 165/166 Turbo's and he mentioned how he was going to train up on the Class 387 with GWR once it enters service in the next year or so. He told me that GWR already have many drivers ready for training in the new stock and that recruiting new drivers is not something GWR would want to do until Control Period 6 when the GWML is fully electrified. Instead of going for the GWR Operations Apprenticeship, he told me to go in for a Network Rail Signalling Apprenticeship of some sort and then gain experience in that sector before applying for a trainee driver role with previous signalling experience.
What is everyone's view of this? Which route should I go down?
1). Operations Apprenticeship with GWR then job with GWR until 21
OR
2). Signalling Apprenticeship with NR then job with NR until 21
Thanks,
Leo