Apprentice Railway Signalling Technician Review

Being the 4th member in a team of 3. Consisting of the team leader, technician and operative. As the apprentice in the team, you go out on track and learn how the teams work during the day to day maintenance and faulting tasks which they do. Apprentices do not get used as a person out on track so it allows the apprentice to learn what is going on and what needs to be done during tasks.

Yes. When I started I knew next to nothing about the railway. I have learnt about the procedures needed to be done to get on track, the steps to doing maintenance tasks and also where you need to look when their are faults and it needs to be found and fixed quickly.

I love going out on track and seeing how things go day to day picking up information and learning from all team members but their is a lot of coursework along with the practical learning on the railway, health and safety is very important and there are many written tasks on how to stay safe along with evidence that you are learning.

The apprenticeship is not very organised. All of my courses were crammed together at the end of the apprenticeship and all of my coursework was due at the end not giving me time to get all of the information and there was no want to guide me there in my depot because no one Wanted to be in charge of the apprentices.

Other team members such as the team leaders would help and support very much when I needed to find the evidence for my tasks to prove that I am learning on track but the management would not give me much guidance or support, I had to do that all by myself.

We were pretty much told to just go out and do it. We received training in three weeks stints down in Portsmouth. Then went back to our depots where we had to find the evidence from the tasks that we were taught down in Portsmouth. We did know or deadlines and got briefed, but after that we were told to go and do it.

With gaining a qualification we found all of the different types of faults and maintenance tasks that are done for the job I am coming out to do. It’s really give me Basic knowledge on how things are done on the training courses and out in the real world.

Not that I am aware. During the apprenticeship we stayed at Westwood where there were many social activities but back in the depots there are nothing. Westwood is where we stayed for the first six months of the apprenticeship gaining basics knowledge on health and safety. It was very fun and we all got to make friends and do activities such as pub quizzes, football, swimming etc.

Yes

It is a good job and it brings a good annual income after the apprenticeship. It is a very secure a job with the qualifications that it brings. And with the amount of knowledge you gain during the apprenticeship then you can walk into a job anywhere on the railway.

If you are applying to work at network rail I would advise you to be patient as the recruiting process is very slow and also Have a look at the salary during the apprenticeship and after the apprenticeship because there is a big difference. But i would advise anyone to go for it.