WMT - Trainee Driver (Talent Pool) - Crewe / Shrewsbury / Leamington Spa (27/12/23)

[Termak]

I think it's likely to have been in error, some people received an email regarding senior conductor testing yesterday!

I’m one of those who received the senior conductor emails. Since I have not received a fail notification as yet, I’ve got my fingers crossed. Applied for Crewe.

 

[dereksingh291]

Nobody really knows. New St is unlikely in the short term, Worcester has a high average age (like Crewe) so I would imagine there could be some there in 2024.

Also, Crewe has never hired external trainee drivers before, it's 1st internal course was December 2022.

So New Street wont be recruiting for the foreseeable future but also has the backlog at New Street and Snow Hill been sorted including Worcester and Bletchley and are there still some people waiting for testing, interviews and courses?

 

[newtownmgr]

Worcester currently as 2 trainees passing out in the next few weeks,followed by 2 more in the spring. 12 trainees waiting to either start handling (4) and resume classroom refreshers prior to handling (8). So can’t see anymore starting until late 24 but you never know.

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Worcester currently as 2 trainees passing out in the next few weeks,followed by 2 more in the spring. 12 trainees waiting to either start handling (4) and resume classroom refreshers prior to handling (8). So can’t see anymore starting until late 24 but you never know.

Thanks for clarification, wasn't sure how many were outstanding down there. Still plenty to get through then

So New Street wont be recruiting for the foreseeable future but also has the backlog at New Street and Snow Hill been sorted including Worcester and Bletchley and are there still some people waiting for testing, interviews and courses?

There are almost almost people processing through the pipeline, that's how recruitment tends to work givem it can easily be 2 years from advertisement to fully passed out.

The only depot I'm 100% about is Crewe, who are recruiting 4 quali's currently and have started to work towards building a talent pool, there is no backlog.

 

[d44nny]

I have applied for Leamington amd completed SJT this morning. Good luck everyone

 

[stXeve]

You won't be seeing a Snow Hill/Worcester advert for a while.

I'm surprised Bletchley didn't go up with this they normally do a course a year.

These are the 3 best driver depots WM have this is a great place to get in, I would pply and not hold out for elsewhere.

 

[dereksingh291]

You won't be seeing a Snow Hill/Worcester advert for a while.

I'm surprised Bletchley didn't go up with this they normally do a course a year.

These are the 3 best driver depots WM have this is a great place to get in, I would pply and not hold out for elsewhere.

And New Street wont be recruiting for a while?

 

[stXeve]

And New Street wont be recruiting for a while?

I don't know how many are left in the talent pool. Who knows. If you want a job apply for these.

 

[tonyianmoore@g]

It asks for your closest crew depot. For me that's Bletchley but as they're not recruiting should I put Leamington?

 

[SCDR_WMR]

It asks for your closest crew depot. For me that's Bletchley but as they're not recruiting should I put Leamington?

Only if you're within the distance required and happy to travel however far it is for a few years. It's better to get your key and move closer when you can than to simply wait as there's no guarantees with future positions.

 

[tonyianmoore@g]

Only if you're within the distance required and happy to travel however far it is for a few years. It's better to get your key and move closer when you can than to simply wait as there's no guarantees with future positions.

I'm 45 minutes from Leamington so I'll put that

 

[d44nny]

I put new street as that's my closest but I'm only 35 mins from leamington

 

[SCDR_WMR]

If you're within 45 mins and want to be a driver, Leamington is a great little depot. Not everyone liked the driver manager when I was down that way, but I would absolutely take ANY driver job I could get. As I said before, once you're post-Q you can try and move to a closer depot, many do.

 

[d44nny]

If you're within 45 mins and want to be a driver, Leamington is a great little depot. Not everyone liked the driver manager when I was down that way, but I would absolutely take ANY driver job I could get. As I said before, once you're post-Q you can try and move to a closer depot, many do.

I've heard that leamington was meant to be a good place.
Do you possibly have an old copy of a rota at all?

 

[SCDR_WMR]

I've heard that leamington was meant to be a good place.
Do you possibly have an old copy of a rota at all?

It's a small, friendly depot with decent work. Don't have their roster unfortunately, but they work the same rest day pattern as all of WMT (Mond/Tues, Wed/Thurs, Fri/Sat) with no rostered Sundays on the long weekend

 

[d44nny]

It's a small, friendly depot with decent work. Don't have their roster unfortunately, but they work the same rest day pattern as all of WMT (Mond/Tues, Wed/Thurs, Fri/Sat) with no rostered Sundays on the long weekend

Brill thanks for the reply.

 

[dereksingh291]

How many drivers are based at Leamington, Crewe & Shrewsbury and is classroom training taken place in Birmingham for these depots and the rest at 1 of the 3 depots?

 

[newtownmgr]

Not sure of establishment but Shrewsbury & Leamington are small depots. Classroom training will be at the company academy in Birmingham, all other training at your home depot

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Crewe is roughly 70ish drivers currently

 

[newtownmgr]

Think Leamington is about 20
Shrewsbury maybe a few more.
Snow Hill is about 70 & Worcester 92

 

[benji98]

Anyone got any tips for the online assessment? What type of questions do they ask?

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Anyone got any tips for the online assessment? What type of questions do they ask?

The online assessment is the SJT, or Situational Judgement Test.

It's a series of situations with several possible answers, you pick (or judge) the best option for that scenario.

The only tip really is take our time, read the, scenario, then the options and read again.

It's simple a test of how you judge the scenarios so to give more than that wouldn't be right unfortunately.

Good luck

 

[Amnesiac]

Anyone got any tips for the online assessment? What type of questions do they ask?

Just done the SJT for Leamington and as SCDR_WMR says, It's about your judgement really. This is the second time I've done it for WMT and being honest is the only way they can evaluate how suitable you are.

 

[TacoTraveller]

Leamington mate!



Same situation as me - strong safety background outside of the railway, full complement of passes, in a talent pool also, close to the depot. In case this reads as a bit entitled, I'm just confused and curious what the criteria is to even make it past the sift!

I'm wondering if it's a case of them already knowing who's going to be filling the positions but need to keep it all above board by advertising externally etc.

I don't think there's any rhyme or reason behind who proceeds and who doesn't because I know you from an old Avanti application which we both got through to.

I put my answers in but on the question but all my answers were very wordy and explicit detail so I don't know if it was detail or keywords I got the marker for but I've made it through to the SJT.

For context of everyone else reading this, I put Leamington spa as my closest at 40 minutes away but my nearest crew depot place as Birmingham New Street which is 20 minutes away from me and my background is I drive trams as my current position.

 

[Brum_AVFC]

Just done the SJT for Leamington and as SCDR_WMR says, It's about your judgement really. This is the second time I've done it for WMT and being honest is the only way they can evaluate how suitable you are.

Just completed my application for Leamington, and also my second time with WMT, I failed the 2 hand test with them in December 2020, I was led to believe from an email from recruitment team at the time that if you’re reapplying for them, if you’re application is successful you get invited to a returning application interview before psychometrics again. Don’t know if that’s still the case.

 

[Danfilm007]

Has anyone received the next stage after the SJT yet? Appreciate deadline isn't until next week but they seemed to be on it last week!

 

[TacoTraveller]

Just completed my application for Leamington, and also my second time with WMT, I failed the 2 hand test with them in December 2020, I was led to believe from an email from recruitment team at the time that if you’re reapplying for them, if you’re application is successful you get invited to a returning application interview before psychometrics again. Don’t know if that’s still the case.

From what I remember of others doing it, you'll basically start from wherever you left off. If you only failed the 2 hand test you'd start from there again after interviews (some toc's do interviews first then assessment)

 

[Retro racer]

Did anyone get a confirmation email after doing the sjt?

 

[benji98]

I didn't get a confirmation email however I had an email this afternoon inviting me to do the online one-way interview. Anyone got any ideas of what questions they ask?

 

[Cuppatea]

I didn't get a confirmation email however I had an email this afternoon inviting me to do the online one-way interview. Anyone got any ideas of what questions they ask?

Ooooo what’s this then? I’ve heard nothing since completely the SJT Saturday. Portal just says “this application is under consideration”.