Northern - Trainee Train Driver - Sheffield & York (30/08/24)

[Horizon22]

New trainee driver adverts:

Sheffield
York

BUSINESS FUNCTION: Operations

GRADE: Driver
SALARY: £23,576 per annum during training - approx. 12 months, Rising to £40,738 in Year 1, £44,952 in Year 2 and £54,500 in Year 3.
ROLE TYPE: On Site
HOURS: Rolling 35 per week

Are you ready to make the journey of a Train Driver ‘Your Thing’?

We are looking for enthusiastic individuals to join our Trainee Train Driver Apprenticeship, where you’ll receive immersive training and hands-on experience to become a fully qualified Train Driver.

 

[Sly Sloth]

Wow thats a ridiculous pay structure!

 

[AverageJoe]

It is a daft pay structure.

I understand training wage being lower but once qualified it should go to top wage.

It will rule out a lot of people 30+ who have mortgages and families and can’t take a likely decent pay cut to be on the 24k

And then those that do apply will possibly be looking to quickly move to another TOC once qualified.

I think 30k first year and full wage after that would be more reasonable considering a lot of TOCs hardly provide the best training plan to get you passed out quickly.

 

[43066]

£54,500 and three years to get there is not good at all. Presumably there aren’t that many alternatives locally.

 

[Lenny_1986]

Will that £54,500 be going to around £62,000 once this pay deal goes through.
Also won’t all of the other increments also rise to reflect this

 

[SiTheTrainGuy]

Will that £54,500 be going to around £62,000 once this pay deal goes through.
Also won’t all of the other increments also rise to reflect this

Thats the hope.
I'm a current trainee driver at Northern. Will be 40 next year with a mortgage and 2 kids, the wage drop initially has been pretty rough but It'll pay off in the long run! 12 tight months for a very safe career and a cracking salary is a small price to pay.

 

[43066]

Will that £54,500 be going to around £62,000 once this pay deal goes through.
Also won’t all of the other increments also rise to reflect this

Yep that’s a good point.

For some reason I thought Northern were already sitting around the £60k mark, but I gather there are different Ts and Cs within the TOC.

 

[MH117]

I find it strange that this is the 2nd time northern have advertised for trainee drivers for Sheffield in the last 2 months, and the 3rd time in 5 months. You’d have thought they would have enough applicants to fill the positions needed without multiple listings.

 

[Sly Sloth]

£54,500 and three years to get there is not good at all. Presumably there aren’t that many alternatives locally.

There’s lots of alternatives at most locations and reasonably close! We’ve got a chap looking to go Preston way and he’s spoken to AVANTI, TPE, northern and someone else who I can’t remembe!

Will that £54,500 be going to around £62,000 once this pay deal goes through.
Also won’t all of the other increments also rise to reflect this

All the salaries mentioned will rise. At Southern we have a 1st year rate which I think is around £4-5K less then its full money and that’s deemed unfair

 

[LokiB]

From what I gather the reason for the structure is a few years ago part of negotiations was that the PQA wage would be altered for an increase in top salary. Obviously the majority of qualified drivers didn't really care about trainees so took the deal.

 

[BobCratchit]

It is a daft pay structure.

I understand training wage being lower but once qualified it should go to top wage.

It will rule out a lot of people 30+ who have mortgages and families and can’t take a likely decent pay cut to be on the 24k

And then those that do apply will possibly be looking to quickly move to another TOC once qualified.

I think 30k first year and full wage after that would be more reasonable considering a lot of TOCs hardly provide the best training plan to get you passed out quickly.

You’re 100% correct regarding older applicants like myself, 24k with a slow pay progression wasn’t happening and that’s why I pulled out of going for the interview in Sheffield. Northern need to either up their game to match other TOCs/FOCs or just hope they can attract enough people with their current salary scale, which doesn’t seem to be working very well given their frequency of driver ads.

 

[43066]

There’s lots of alternatives at most locations and reasonably close! We’ve got a chap looking to go Preston way and he’s spoken to AVANTI, TPE, northern and someone else who I can’t remembe!

I’m not sure how many there really are for Sheffield and York, as advertised here. Sheffield especially is a long way from Preston (I admit my geography of Northern England isn’t the best).

AIUI Northern pay better at other locations (west versus east?) - someone who works there can probably confirm.

 

[skyhigh]

AIUI Northern pay better at other locations (west versus east?) - someone who works there can probably confirm.

From memory the basic pay is the same, just Sundays are outside on the West so if you work them you'll get overtime even when there's no rest day agreement.

West certainly don't have a higher basic salary.

 

[Lenny_1986]

I find it strange that this is the 2nd time northern have advertised for trainee drivers for Sheffield in the last 2 months, and the 3rd time in 5 months. You’d have thought they would have enough applicants to fill the positions needed without multiple

Maybe more people leaving for other companies than expected. Or just lots of people retiring

 

[L0utrain]

Hi! Wondering if anyone else has applied yet to the Sheffield station?

 

[LCC106]

@LokiB is correct. There was a pay deal for the qualifieds (although I thought it was a one off payment of a couple of grand?) That was pre 2012 so definitely outdated!

 

[MH117]

Hi! Wondering if anyone else has applied yet to the Sheffield station?

I have. Heard nothing back, not even the generic ‘we’re still going through applications’ email you often get

 

[L0utrain]

I have. Heard nothing back, not even the generic ‘we’re still going through applications’ email you often get

Thanks for replying . The deadline closes today at 23:59, unless they extend it. This is my first time applying for this and complete career change.
Hoping it’s a good sign they keep advertising, although also hear what everyone else is saying in the thread above about pay ect.

Hoping that if they deadline closes we’ll hear in the next few weeks. I keep logging in and it says ‘application under consideration.’

 

[MH117]

Had an email update to say my application was being screened, then 10 minutes later a rejection email. . And my application has ‘application unsuccessful’ on it now.

This is strange as I have applied to northern before and it usually says ‘application ended’

The only time I have ever had ‘unsuccessful’ and it happen so quickly is when I have applied to a depot too far away. . Yet I live 5 minutes from the Sheffield depot.

 

[L0utrain]

Had an email update to say my application was being screened, then 10 minutes later a rejection email. . And my application has ‘application unsuccessful’ on it now.

This is strange as I have applied to northern before and it usually says ‘application ended’

The only time I have ever had ‘unsuccessful’ and it happen so quickly is when I have applied to a depot too far away. . Yet I live 5 minutes from the Sheffield depot.

Sorry to hear that. I had the same email. Gutted! I honestly don’t know what they’re looking for!

 

[Snowman84]

Hi All, Just seen this pop up again for York

https://northern.engageats.co.uk/Vacancies/W/2036/0/439375/23565/trainee-train-driver