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It’s good they are providing these updates to candidates. When I applied in 2022 I received no communication at all for 14 months when they emailed to ask if I was still interested.
Previous applications to this also went with no communication.
It’s good they are providing these updates to candidates. When I applied in 2022 I received no communication at all for 14 months when they emailed to ask if I was still interested.
Previous applications to this also went with no communication.
This. I have seen some real horror stories on here, though I must say that the job market more broadly really does seem now (if it wasn't already) to be an employers' market if ever there was one.
I suspect the recruitment emails are in reply to the candidates who applied for the most recent recruitment drive, and not replies to those who applied in 2024 (those candidates have been put in a 2 year talent bank and will get an update every 6 months)
Exactly the same process, except that this latest recruitment drive there was the additional online test after the sift that seemingly took a lot of the applicants out of the running.
Exactly the same process, except that this latest recruitment drive there was the additional online test after the sift that seemingly took a lot of the applicants out of the running.
But of course: I saw they were hiring and I applied. Today I got the email and I couldn't see anyone else having reported this. My best guess is that if successful I would take the place on the still-warm bench that one of the earlier successes had occupied so patiently.
Purely on the basis of the application time line, so unless there's something else that internal candidates have that makes them more desirable over external candidates who applied much earlier - over 2 years before. It raises the question to 2024 candidates, why are internal candidates prioritised?
Purely on the basis of the application time line, so unless there's something else that internal candidates have that makes them more desirable over external candidates who applied much earlier - over 2 years before. It raises the question to 2024 candidates, why are internal candidates prioritised?
I could be wrong, and I’m making no judgement on the fairness or otherwise of it, but I don’t think there has been an internal driver recruitment campaign since late 2022. I don’t remember seeing one in my time in the railway as it’s been said that ScotRail got additional money taking externals into driver roles. I imagine that would cause a little resentment with internal staff. Internal candidates are not allowed to apply for external vacancies.
I could be wrong, and I’m making no judgement on the fairness or otherwise of it, but I don’t think there has been an internal driver recruitment campaign since late 2022. I don’t remember seeing one in my time in the railway as it’s been said that ScotRail got additional money taking externals into driver roles. I imagine that would cause a little resentment with internal staff.
I could be wrong, and I’m making no judgement on the fairness or otherwise of it, but I don’t think there has been an internal driver recruitment campaign since late 2022. I don’t remember seeing one in my time in the railway as it’s been said that ScotRail got additional money taking externals into driver roles. I imagine that would cause a little resentment with internal staff. Internal candidates are not allowed to apply for external vacancies.
For everyone who got the talent bank email at the beginning of the month I’m wondering what your gut feeling is about it? Do we reckon we’ll actually get a start date eventually or this is a gentle way of letting us down?
Maybe I’m being overly pessimistic but I fear the worst. The wording of the email and poor communication from the recruitment team isn’t filling me with confidence at all.
I just can’t get my head around why they would spend money recruiting us, find the people they want to recruit, then place them in a talent bank with an expiry date and spend money recruiting a bunch of new people who may also never make it out of the talent bank.
@mikeccccccc
For every external candidate that thinks it's unfair, there are a number of internal employees who also think it's unfair to see one of the top paying jobs outside management constantly being put out to external candidates with no opportunity to apply for it themselves.
A train driver position is one of the most sought after in the Country as you need no experience to do the job because you get fully trained. That in itself gives the Company absolute carte blanche on who they want to give the post to.
For everyone who got the talent bank email at the beginning of the month I’m wondering what your gut feeling is about it? Do we reckon we’ll actually get a start date eventually or this is a gentle way of letting us down?
Maybe I’m being overly pessimistic but I fear the worst. The wording of the email and poor communication from the recruitment team isn’t filling me with confidence at all.
I just can’t get my head around why they would spend money recruiting us, find the people they want to recruit, then place them in a talent bank with an expiry date and spend money recruiting a bunch of new people who may also never make it out of the talent bank.
When recruitment was started, it was to cover not only retirements/leavers but also to increase the workforce for the inclusion of Sunday being included as part of the working week. I’d say that there was every intention of seeing us that passed right through to a position as soon as possible.
However with the talks of Sundays now probably at a critical crossroads they have probably taken the position to put us into a talent bank till they know what is happening.
I agree that the communication has been very poor and an explanation to why this is happened should have been included to stop us all speculating (rightly or wrongly) as to why this has happened.
Just my take on it, I may be correct, I may be well off the mark, who knows?
For everyone who got the talent bank email at the beginning of the month I’m wondering what your gut feeling is about it? Do we reckon we’ll actually get a start date eventually or this is a gentle way of letting us down?
Maybe I’m being overly pessimistic but I fear the worst. The wording of the email and poor communication from the recruitment team isn’t filling me with confidence at all.
I just can’t get my head around why they would spend money recruiting us, find the people they want to recruit, then place them in a talent bank with an expiry date and spend money recruiting a bunch of new people who may also never make it out of the talent bank.
I personally have gone through the full range of emotions but am back to being the same as I was prior to the email which is hopeful it is going to happen at some point. Only certain depots were advertised for recently which tells me they have looked at the current numbers for all of them and advertised accordingly for where they didn't think they had at least a years worth sitting in the talent bank. As others have said it seems to be the norm for other TOCs so my gut is telling me that people are going to start progressing again in the next few weeks now that we are hitting the new financial year.
One reason why they will have to slow things down a bit for recruitment in the near future is the arrival of the class 222 trains towards the end of this year. There will be a lot of existing drivers (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Queen Street, Inverness and Perth depots, there may be others possibly too?) who need to go on the traction conversion course and that is delivered by the Training Academy trainers. It will need at least 3 or 4 of them doing pretty much nothing else for months. The classroom bit is delivered by the trainers and the practical train handling hours are supervised by Driving Instructors from each of the depots. So that will obviously reduce the capacity for new trainee courses in the next 12 months or so.
It doesn't excuse the poor communication though. It shouldn't be hard to put out an email explaining stuff like this and what their plans are.
I really hope that the start of the financial year will see things start to move again but god knows if that’ll be the case.
It’s incredibly frustrating having to basically put your life on hold for a job that you might never get but there isn’t much you can do other than suck it up unfortunately.
I really hope that the start of the financial year will see things start to move again but god knows if that’ll be the case.
It’s incredibly frustrating having to basically put your life on hold for a job that you might never get but there isn’t much you can do other than suck it up unfortunately.
For everyone who got the talent bank email at the beginning of the month I’m wondering what your gut feeling is about it? Do we reckon we’ll actually get a start date eventually or this is a gentle way of letting us down?
Maybe I’m being overly pessimistic but I fear the worst. The wording of the email and poor communication from the recruitment team isn’t filling me with confidence at all.
I just can’t get my head around why they would spend money recruiting us, find the people they want to recruit, then place them in a talent bank with an expiry date and spend money recruiting a bunch of new people who may also never make it out of the talent bank.
I'm very clearly in the minority, going by what I've read on here, but I'm of the opinion that it hasn't actually changed anything. If anything, the email is a slight positive…
Realistically, I was - in all but official name - already in a talent bank. As was everyone else who got the email. We'd passed all assessments; got through the interviews; and were now patiently waiting to find out a medical and start date. That hasn't changed. So, for me, the email was the first bit of proactive communication we've received throughout the process.
Far be it from me to tell others how to feel, but I think there's been a lot of overreaction on here. But, that's my gut feeling and not everyone else's - and that's ok.
I'm also seeing it as positive personally that my depot was one that had TB vacancies advertised. If ScotRail are projecting they need more in the TB behind me, then that bodes well for me.
I could be wildly wrong, but that's my gut feeling.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
To make a significant change within Scotrail there are 3 "bodies" which have to authorise it. Scottish Rail Holdings, Transport Scotland and finally the Scottish Government. In he case of Sunday as part of the working week it has been passed by the first 2 and it's now down to the government to make a acceptable offer. So yes, it is entirely the government who will dictate whether it happens or not depending if they're offer is acceptable.
AFAIK, ScotGov can now no longer say or offer anything official, as we're now in the pre-election period. They'll have deliberately daudled on it so there's no prospect of industrial unrest on the railways as folk go to the ballot.
It'll be interesting to see what's in manifestos though around the nationalised railway. I suspect - and it's only a guess - that there'll be an inclusion of Sunday in the working week and an increase in driver numbers included as an SNP Commitment.
I'm very clearly in the minority, going by what I've read on here, but I'm of the opinion that it hasn't actually changed anything. If anything, the email is a slight positive…
Realistically, I was - in all but official name - already in a talent bank. As was everyone else who got the email. We'd passed all assessments; got through the interviews; and were now patiently waiting to find out a medical and start date. That hasn't changed. So, for me, the email was the first bit of proactive communication we've received throughout the process.
Far be it from me to tell others how to feel, but I think there's been a lot of overreaction on here. But, that's my gut feeling and not everyone else's - and that's ok.
I'm also seeing it as positive personally that my depot was one that had TB vacancies advertised. If ScotRail are projecting they need more in the TB behind me, then that bodes well for me.
I could be wildly wrong, but that's my gut feeling.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
AFAIK, ScotGov can now no longer say or offer anything official, as we're now in the pre-election period. They'll have deliberately daudled on it so there's no prospect of industrial unrest on the railways as folk go to the ballot.
It'll be interesting to see what's in manifestos though around the nationalised railway. I suspect - and it's only a guess - that there'll be an inclusion of Sunday in the working week and an increase in driver numbers included as an SNP Commitment.
There were a significant number of applicants who were told at their last stage, for me DMI with depot manager, that I should expect to start the training process in April '26. My DMI was July '25.
Whilst I appreciate unless it's in black and white to assume nothing, but to be told that with some certainty by the OM of worst case April, then you can understand that for a lot of us the open ended TB email was a kick in the curlies.
We can all but wait and suck it up, lucky you for having a depot with higher turnover..
Yeah it was the April 2026 part that has me hoping that people will start to hear something soon as April certainly had some significance at some point!
There were a significant number of applicants who were told at their last stage, for me DMI with depot manager, that I should expect to start the training process in April '26. My DMI was July '25.
Whilst I appreciate unless it's in black and white to assume nothing, but to be told that with some certainty by the OM of worst case April, then you can understand that for a lot of us the open ended TB email was a kick in the curlies.
We can all but wait and suck it up, lucky you for having a depot with higher turnover..
Which depot are you tranched to? I was told similar in my DMI but was May instead of April. Wonder if they meant courses began then in general more than giving a nudge.
Which depot are you tranched to? I was told similar in my DMI but was May instead of April. Wonder if they meant courses began then in general more than giving a nudge.
There were a significant number of applicants who were told at their last stage, for me DMI with depot manager, that I should expect to start the training process in April '26. My DMI was July '25.
Whilst I appreciate unless it's in black and white to assume nothing, but to be told that with some certainty by the OM of worst case April, then you can understand that for a lot of us the open ended TB email was a kick in the curlies.
We can all but wait and suck it up, lucky you for having a depot with higher turnover..
Yip pretty much the same, between applying for a “Trainee Train Driver” position in March ‘24, and August ‘25 we were told start date 2025/26. Between August ‘25 and passing DMI in December ‘25 was told start date April ‘26 and April ‘27.
3 months later, put into a talent bank with no indication of potential (if at all) start date.
So we’ve went from applying for a position with a defined start date (that did get pushed back but to be expected with volume of applicants) to now being unsure if we will ever get a start.
I think the biggest issue is the ambiguity around the “2 year” statement. For the new talent bank positions it stated that after passing all assessments, your details would be kept for a maximum of 2 years. Meaning if no positions open up within that 2 years, you will no longer be considered. Whereas in our email is stated that we would be placed in the talent bank for “a maximum of 2 years”. Does this mean we WILL get a start date within 2 years, OR like the new positions, if no positions open up within 2 years we will no longer be considered? This is obviously a rhetorical question as no one apart from Scotrail knows, but it is a question that I’m sure we are all wondering, and probably a fair few of us have enquired about with no reply.
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