Will be interesting how may Train op vacancies there are at present & whether recruiting & training is in progress
I can help you out with the training part of your question. All depots have noticeboards with lists of Instructor Operators (who teach new drivers, amongst other duties) and their associated trainee alongside, and which week the trainee is currently on.
Here is the cut down version for the Piccadilly Line.
I've edited out the names, but essentially the instructor's name would be on the left, and trainee's name on the right. So for our purposes, the first column is the intended depot the trainee will be working at (Arnos Grove, Northfields, Cockfosters, or Northfields), the second column is the current week of training for the trainee, and the third column is the length of training - which is always 14 weeks for new trainees. You can see a couple of 10 week training periods, these are cross transfer train operators from another line.
It's not indicated here, but training often overruns well past 14 weeks and you would then see a second column figure higher than the expected 14 weeks - this could be for any number of reasons, stock availability, instructor availability, personal issues, slow learning, etc.
For completeness, the "LIV..." you can see at the top right in the fourth column is "Live SPAD Training!" and there shouldn't ever be a week 9 trainee as that is an annual leave week.
