Year 10/12 Work Experience on the Railway - General Discussion

MerlinRail 804 said:

Work Experience Programme - 2026 (3271) in Croydon at GTR (Govia Thameslink Railway) | Apply now! – StudySmarter – Talents

Kick-start your career as a Work Experience Programme - 2026 (3271) in Croydon at GTR (Govia Thameslink Railway) Easily apply on the largest job board for Gen Z! ✅

talents.studysmarter.co.uk

Had a little look and found this on google. Looks interesting, but at the bottom, says “Applications are open until the 23rd November”. Slightly confusing that it still seems to be up two months later

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It's not GTR's official page, so it's probably just been left there. When you go to GTR's profile on this site, there are vacancies posted months and months ago if you scroll down.

Hello! I’ve just been offered a 1 week work experience placement at Blackburn station and I wanted to ask a few question for people who have done railway work experience:
Do the operators offer travel?
Any tips for day 1?
What kind of things did you do?

Just a simple question of how can I get involved as work experience looms over me like a great shadow. I'm more interested in the technical, non-physical up close aspects, such as route control but need advice on how to get such work experience.

Hello
Does anyone have any tips on gaining work experience in the railway industry. Also is there anywhere thats currently offering work experience.
thank you

wukasz said:

Hello
Does anyone have any tips on gaining work experience in the railway industry. Also is there anywhere thats currently offering work experience.
thank you

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Try contacting your local train operating company. It may take a while for them to get back in touch, but they should hopefully. I'm about to start work at Stroud station with GWR myself, hope you enjoy work experience.

It’s a shame as it’s a far cry from the days of BR. At the age of 15 in 1990 I did two weeks at Paddington, covering everything from Red Star Parcels, Telephone Enquiry Bureaux, assisted travel, station control including announcing, dispatching, days out the Railway Training Scheme recruits - including a jolly to Carlisle. I was given a bearer pass (free work travel) for the two weeks.

At the age of 16 I got a Saturday Job in the TEB.

At 17 in 1992 I did a further week at Old Oak Common. Days out with travelling fitters to Oxford to collect two broken 47s (we fixed one and dragged the other back), replacing fuel rails on 47s, removing spare parts from DMUs to keep the others going. Working in The Factory assisting with changing bogies etc.

It set me up wonderfully for my future career.

Shortly before my 18th Birthday I called the recruiter at Paddington and asked if he had anything going. He called me back the next day and I got a job in OOC Panel as a clerical officer. A year later I became a signaller. 36 years later, I still look back on my three weeks work experience as it gave me a huge amount of knowledge in a short space of time.