When you apply for a trainee train driver position and get accepted, do you have to stay with the company after you qualify for a period of time or can you leave sooner/once qualified for a job that is closer to home for example (as a Qualified Train Driver on the first group page)???/
Many thanks
So it's probably in the terms of the union (Peterborough) agreement that trainees are contracted to work for the company for 2 years after qualifying.
You may even be asked to sign a training agreement saying that if you leave within this period, you'll have to pay back a certain amount of money.
(If you are asked to sign a training agreement, the larger the amount of payback then the bigger the red flag because obviously nobody wants to work there - £5k is tiny and they just want you to think twice before you quit; £150k means that many people hate working there)
That all said, many people leave for other companies within a few months of being handed their driving licence, and the worst that will happen is you get a note on your safety of line record which says that "Driver XXXXX is still within their PQ period". And the TOC/FOC which trained you may phone up your new employers to tell them that you're still under contract to them.
There's a new TOC in London which recently trained up a large number of drivers and used to lose one in every 20 within months of qualifying - they recently considered it a cause for celebration that somebody actually stayed for three years before they left. A staff turnover of over 10% is possibly not a good thing
I personally consider it success of the culture of a company that people choose not to leave even though they can.
The other thing you need to be in mind is the informal non-compete agreements - some managers have informal agreement not to take on the train drivers of other companies where their mates happen to be managers.
