Scotrail Trainee Drivers (Ongoing)

[Ducaticam]

Unfortunately no. Thursday for me!

I'm in tomorrow, nervous is an understatement.
I'm of the understanding it's the Group Bourdon Test, TRP 1&2, and Tea-Occ assessments only and that an interview would be at a later stage?
Good luck on Thursday.

 

[J1mbay]

The room we had ours in had approx 10 computer stations, but there were only 4 of us in there ....I would say that's probably standard as they only had 3 interviewers to do the 4 (all passed) MMIs. Interviews took at least 60 mins.

Ah that’s great- thanks for that.
congrats on passing.
How did you find the MMI?

 

[doonhamer]

I applied for Dumfries and with an employee as a reference and not heard anything back so use guys have done well

I’m Dumfries as well and still waiting on a date for first assessment day.

 

[siweL]

I'm in tomorrow, nervous is an understatement.
I'm of the understanding it's the Group Bourdon Test, TRP 1&2, and Tea-Occ assessments only and that an interview would be at a later stage?
Good luck on Thursday.

Best of luck today hope it goes well, where are you applying for?

Yeah it should just be everything that was sent in an email is all you do, that’s the same as what I have for tomorrow!

 

[LockLoyal]

I’m Dumfries as well and still waiting on a date for first assessment day.

Nice one thank you

 

[tallpaulself]

Just had my DMI, some nerves just before hand

So begins the next waiting game, all going well.

 

[Ducaticam]

Best of luck today hope it goes well, where are you applying for?

Yeah it should just be everything that was sent in an email is all you do, that’s the same as what I have for tomorrow!

Glasgow.

It's not as bad as I had imagined, for a couple of the exercices you have practice questions. They give you plenty opportunity to ask if you don't understand something before each assessment. Keep calm and concentrate is all I can advise.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Feb 2025 ==

I was told from a friend the previous salaries all got about 3k added to them

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Jan 2025 ==

Anyone who’s been to the assessment centre for computer ones have any info on dress code for this? I felt overdressed for the first set of assessments. It does say casual and business attire are acceptable on the email. Just with it possibly being a longer day than the first I’d rather be comfortable

Same as the first, smart casual

 

[DavidAtkin]

Anyone from Glasgow waiting for second assessment day ?

 

[henke7]

Anyone from Glasgow waiting for second assessment day ?

Yes mate, hopefully hear this week

 

[JMatrix]

Has anyone who had their DMI last week heard anything yet? Cheers

 

[sktt25]

I had mine on Jan 13th and still haven't heard back yet. I'm in a slightly different boat as I've passed all of the tests previously with another TOC. Just have to take no news as good news and stay patient for the time being

 

[JMatrix]

I had mine on Jan 13th and still haven't heard back yet. I'm in a slightly different boat as I've passed all of the tests previously with another TOC. Just have to take no news as good news and stay patient for the time being

Shocking really. Fingers crossed for you. Cheers

 

[sktt25]

Shocking really. Fingers crossed for you. Cheers

Appreciate it! Railway recruitment tends to be very slow due to all of the steps to applications and amount of applications they get. Good luck to you as well mate

 

[Mihigo26]

Hi folks,

I looked into applying in 2023, spoke to recruitment team who said to sign up for the job alerts so I did that. In typical fashion, I did not receive an alert in early 2024 and completely missed the boat (or train) this time around.

Does anyone reckon they will open up to applications again anytime soon? I am looking to make a career change and move on from my current role ASAP basically as things aren't great and there is the risk of potential redundancies in the summer. I appreciate from reading this thread that this can be a fairly long process, however if I was successful and knowing I had this on the horizon at some point in time I could probably hack it out in my current role until such a time came to pass (providing I wasn't at risk of redundancy of course!). I e-mailed the recruitment team recently who just said to keep an eye out this time.

Thanks, and good luck to those in the process!

 

[Edgar Ætheling]

Hi folks,

I looked into applying in 2023, spoke to recruitment team who said to sign up for the job alerts so I did that. In typical fashion, I did not receive an alert in early 2024 and completely missed the boat (or train) this time around.

Does anyone reckon they will open up to applications again anytime soon? I am looking to make a career change and move on from my current role ASAP basically as things aren't great and there is the risk of potential redundancies in the summer. I appreciate from reading this thread that this can be a fairly long process, however if I was successful and knowing I had this on the horizon at some point in time I could probably hack it out in my current role until such a time came to pass (providing I wasn't at risk of redundancy of course!). I e-mailed the recruitment team recently who just said to keep an eye out this time.

Thanks, and good luck to those in the process!

Taken from previous years' practices the likely time for vacancies advertised is March/April if there's going to be an intake this year. But please keep in mind that up to three years passing between applying and finally getting to the end of the process is not unheard of. So if you don't like your current work, it's probably a good idea to find something in the meantime as the railway is not the quickest escape route.

 

[Samsanbor]

Hi folks,

I looked into applying in 2023, spoke to recruitment team who said to sign up for the job alerts so I did that. In typical fashion, I did not receive an alert in early 2024 and completely missed the boat (or train) this time around.

Does anyone reckon they will open up to applications again anytime soon? I am looking to make a career change and move on from my current role ASAP basically as things aren't great and there is the risk of potential redundancies in the summer. I appreciate from reading this thread that this can be a fairly long process, however if I was successful and knowing I had this on the horizon at some point in time I could probably hack it out in my current role until such a time came to pass (providing I wasn't at risk of redundancy of course!). I e-mailed the recruitment team recently who just said to keep an eye out this time.

Thanks, and good luck to those in the process!

There will be a new external recruitment at some point, ScotRail is targeting to take more drivers regularly for the next 5 years or so.
Difficult to say exactly when, as they are still taken candidates from the latest campaign and there were until recently also internal vacancies at some depots.
It can take literally years from application stage to receive an offer.
Without wanted to sound negative as I understand your situation but if your need to change your job is time sensitive you have to realise that the railway in general and train driving roles in particular requires time and unpredictable timescales.

 

[Scottt]

Hi folks,

I looked into applying in 2023, spoke to recruitment team who said to sign up for the job alerts so I did that. In typical fashion, I did not receive an alert in early 2024 and completely missed the boat (or train) this time around.

Does anyone reckon they will open up to applications again anytime soon? I am looking to make a career change and move on from my current role ASAP basically as things aren't great and there is the risk of potential redundancies in the summer. I appreciate from reading this thread that this can be a fairly long process, however if I was successful and knowing I had this on the horizon at some point in time I could probably hack it out in my current role until such a time came to pass (providing I wasn't at risk of redundancy of course!). I e-mailed the recruitment team recently who just said to keep an eye out this time.

Thanks, and good luck to those in the process!

I sat my first assessment on 23/01/25 and it was mentioned that we are now part of the intake for this year's 150 drivers. I originally applied at the beginning of March 24.

Totally understand your position as I am in a similar situation. It may be worth looking at other scotrail vacancies and if successful try and use it as a stepping stone and move into a trainee driver position internally.

Good luck.

 

[siweL]

Good evening everyone, just got an email saying I’ve met the standard for assessment 1, interview at my depot next week, for competency and situational based questions… any advice in what to revise would be hugely grateful wether on here or private message, thanks!

 

[akoj]

Just to give others an idea of what sort of time scale you can expect.

I had the DMI in September, was told I passed in October and have heard nothing since.

Bare in mind not everyone will be the same so others might have been way quicker than this and some may wait even longer.

 

[Myk59]

Good evening everyone, just got an email saying I’ve met the standard for assessment 1, interview at my depot next week, for competency and situational based questions… any advice in what to revise would be hugely grateful wether on here or private message, thanks!

I would research Scotrail (company values ect.) I would also try speak to someone at your local depot as I did this and I got lots of good information for my DMI. I would research your local depot as well such as route, tractions ect. Good luck for it!

 

[jmccallion93]

I would research Scotrail (company values ect.) I would also try speak to someone at your local depot as I did this and I got lots of good information for my DMI. I would research your local depot as well such as route, tractions ect. Good luck for it!

I had mine less than a month ago and was asked nothing about any of that stuff really, was all just standard interview questions with a few scenarios and how I would deal with them

 

[Mihigo26]

Taken from previous years' practices the likely time for vacancies advertised is March/April if there's going to be an intake this year. But please keep in mind that up to three years passing between applying and finally getting to the end of the process is not unheard of. So if you don't like your current work, it's probably a good idea to find something in the meantime as the railway is not the quickest escape route.

There will be a new external recruitment at some point, ScotRail is targeting to take more drivers regularly for the next 5 years or so.
Difficult to say exactly when, as they are still taken candidates from the latest campaign and there were until recently also internal vacancies at some depots.
It can take literally years from application stage to receive an offer.
Without wanted to sound negative as I understand your situation but if your need to change your job is time sensitive you have to realise that the railway in general and train driving roles in particular requires time and unpredictable timescales.

I sat my first assessment on 23/01/25 and it was mentioned that we are now part of the intake for this year's 150 drivers. I originally applied at the beginning of March 24.

Totally understand your position as I am in a similar situation. It may be worth looking at other scotrail vacancies and if successful try and use it as a stepping stone and move into a trainee driver position internally.

Good luck.

Thanks all.

I meant more in the sense that if they advertised and I passed the assessments then I could carry on with my current role in the interim, unless I was made redundant, which is obviously a different situation altogether. So yeah, I'll probably need to find something else.

If the people sitting assessments this year are now part of the intake for this year's drivers then it doesn't sound anything is likely considering the volume of applicants. I guess I'll just need to keep checking often until something comes up.

 

[J1mbay]

Has anyone recently done there last test and MMI. Just looking for the approx time you were in there, were the tests quick with the wait being with the MMI itself?

how was the image test? keep practicing but it’s tough.
TIA

 

[jmccallion93]

Has anyone recently done there last test and MMI. Just looking for the approx time you were in there, were the tests quick with the wait being with the MMI itself?

how was the image test? keep practicing but it’s tough.
TIA

Had mine last week, was to be there for 9:30 and got out about 14:45. Tests weren’t that long, wee wait after them to get results and then we had a lunch break for about an hour to let them get prepared for interviews. Image test I was terrible at it when practicing but seemed to pass on the day, just tried to click what I definitely seen rather than trying to guess some things

 

[J1mbay]

Had mine last week, was to be there for 9:30 and got out about 14:45. Tests weren’t that long, wee wait after them to get results and then we had a lunch break for about an hour to let them get prepared for interviews. Image test I was terrible at it when practicing but seemed to pass on the day, just tried to click what I definitely seen rather than trying to guess some things

Ah cheers for the reply, that’s good I suppose. Been practicing it like mad but terrible too, cheers for the heads up.

How did you find the MMI?

Cheers again.

 

[Doonhamer96]

Just to give others an idea of what sort of time scale you can expect.

I had the DMI in September, was told I passed in October and have heard nothing since.

Bear in mind not everyone will be the same so others might have been way quicker than this and some may wait even longer.

similar to me , DMI in October and haven’t even heard if I have passed or not.

 

[jmccallion93]

Ah cheers for the reply, that’s good I suppose. Been practicing it like mad but terrible too, cheers for the heads up.

How did you find the MMI?

Cheers again.

Hard to say cause still waiting on results but I felt a lot more relaxed in it than the DMI. It was a lot more laid back but still difficult, I felt I don’t ok at it, definitely felt better coming out of that one

 

[J1mbay]

Hard to say cause still waiting on results but I felt a lot more relaxed in it than the DMI. It was a lot more laid back but still difficult, I felt I don’t ok at it, definitely felt better coming out of that one

Class! fingers crossed for you.

hoping it’s not a crazy wait if successful.
Cheers again.

 

[Edgar Ætheling]

Thanks all.

I meant more in the sense that if they advertised and I passed the assessments then I could carry on with my current role in the interim, unless I was made redundant, which is obviously a different situation altogether. So yeah, I'll probably need to find something else.

If the people sitting assessments this year are now part of the intake for this year's drivers then it doesn't sound anything is likely considering the volume of applicants. I guess I'll just need to keep checking often until something comes up.

Hi,

Thanks, now I see better what you meant. What you need consider is that the assesments are not a single act; there are two rounds of assessments and two interviews. These are usually arranged over three separate dates, often multiple months between each date. Also, in my case, there was a six months' silence between me submitting the application and the first email from recruitment. So it's a lengthy process even before you get to know whether you passed everything or not. Somebody here suggested trying to go for a different grade within the company first and go for the driving grade as an internal applicant. I think that is an excellent idea if you have doubts about your current employment.

And don't despair about vacancies. ScotRail is in a multi year recruitment drive just now, so even though they have applicants to process from previous years they will need to keep advertising to fulfil the numbers required.

Good luck!

 

[Kuksoolgirl]

Hi folks,

I looked into applying in 2023, spoke to recruitment team who said to sign up for the job alerts so I did that. In typical fashion, I did not receive an alert in early 2024 and completely missed the boat (or train) this time around.

Does anyone reckon they will open up to applications again anytime soon? I am looking to make a career change and move on from my current role ASAP basically as things aren't great and there is the risk of potential redundancies in the summer. I appreciate from reading this thread that this can be a fairly long process, however if I was successful and knowing I had this on the horizon at some point in time I could probably hack it out in my current role until such a time came to pass (providing I wasn't at risk of redundancy of course!). I e-mailed the recruitment team recently who just said to keep an eye out this time.

Thanks, and good luck to those in the process!

I set a daily reminder on my phone to check their website. They can shut the closing date early.