Hello,
I am part way through my driver training provided by the government through a private trainer. I have done my theory, hazard and mod 2. I have my mod 4 booked in Nov on the 15th and driver training starting Nov 14th.
I got two text messages which I thought was odd because they can contact me through the regular method that we communicate which is my email address. The first was asking if I wanted help looking for work the second I got today. It mentions that the training is conditional to me having a job offer. I don’t have a job offer yet as I was hoping to start through an agency. That way I can pick what I want and come and go as I please. Though that was my idea, thinking that was best for me.
I was hoping that someone here did the training course and did they get the same thing. Part of the message sounds like they just want a yes or no for what sounds like a survey. Then they mention sending me a link about something. I am not sure if they want proof of a job offer?
It has me worked up a bit. I have been out of work for a time now, like many others and my anxiety about getting back into work is high. Especially with agencies which I have never had much luck with. Now it looks as though all this time has been wasted because I have not ticked a box.
I am going to call the company tomorrow and ask them to send me the information through my email so it is all in one place. Something feels off about how they are doing this. Sending me texts at 18:30 in the evening?
My main concern with getting work through this training provider is that they will try to fob me off with some low paid poor quality job that no one else wants. 15 hours a day and treated like cr*p. I have been thinking about doing a few weeks as a 3.5 tonne driver just to get back into the swing of work.
I am not sure what to say to the training provider, considering I say the wrong thing and they cancel this far ahead. I have waited since Nov last year, that is when I put in my application.
So yeah, anyone done this type of training and had to have a conditional job offer? How did it go?
Thanks
Simon
Do you have a link or something where the terms and conditions of the Gov course are stated 
As Rog said, time to check the Ts and Cs. I’d be a bit concerned about the “conditional” nature of the training, that ought to have been properly spelled out to you at the start.
I’m not certain all of these types of courses would be identical Ts & Cs, the government as we can see are pretty good at being incompetent, the whole project seemed to me to be boshed off PDQ, with the overall “training” organised by people who simply farmed out the actual truck training to regular driving schools - who knows what deals were agreed? It never struck me as something that would be without a sizable dose of problems, it’s a Government scheme, how could it be problem free?
“15 hours a day and treated like cr*p” You only need to browse some of the threads on this forum to see that there’s a lot of drivers who actually defend the 15 hour day, personally I don’t get that (max hours, mimimal rest - nein danke!)
Hello,
I got off the phone and it is like the jobcentre all over again.
Thanks for the response, my head is spinning a little as getting this close to have them yank the carrot back.
They want to see some effort from me when it comes to job searching. Proof that I want to do this and not muck about. It felt like a jobcentre conversation. I have to send them proof that I am applying for jobs, which is kind of hard considering a number of places wont take new starts. I have to find the ones that do, and I think that applying could be enough?
To be honest I would prefer a smaller truck for starters, delivery is a new one and part time hours would be better suited. After a few weeks I would feel better about it and then go full HGV (cat C)
I am not trying to bash the 15 hours a day thing, for now I would prefer something shorter. Some people seem (to me anyway) to paint the job as extremely stressful due to hours, time constraints, poor interaction with customers, wages, conditions.
Off in search of a job now.
All the best
Simon
To be honest I would prefer a smaller truck for starters, delivery is a new one and part time hours would be better suited. After a few weeks I would feel better about it and then go full HGV (cat C)
Try a van job on the weekends. Use the earnings from it to save up to self-fund the test yourself. You’ll know if you really want to do it within a few months.
If this is through universal credit the job coaches have to first prove they think you will continue the training through and secondly will make sure you continue in the roll trained for, with a firm is sometimes ignored, the reason for that is there are many people who take up the limited training on offer then they never use the new skills wasting the training and getting the coach in trouble. the coaches are given a certain amount of courses that they must be selective in who they give the training to. Honestly there are many people doing multiple courses to just retain their universal credit, ruining it for the majority hence the training keeps getting pulled!
One last thing they (dwp) expect you to take the national minimum wage so don’t mess it up by turning low rates down to start with or they may pull your funded course. Be clever and do what they ask until you get through the training.
All the best with it.
Not wishing to be too harsh, but you’d be competing against other people who are likely to be far more highly motivated than your post suggests you are.
To be really blunt, I’m not sure you’d be particularly well suited to the industry, I certainly can’t imagine you’d enjoy it, there’s a lot of BS and getting messed around that goes with the job and for which you really have to learn to “roll with it”.
It was the “training provider” who texted or contacted you?
Who are they? Are they actually a driving school with their site, and own vehicles etc?
It’s my understanding that there are two levels of provider: (i) one who is the “learning provider” who gets the funds from the government and sets the gig up and (ii) the driving school who have the work farmed out to them. Essentially the driving school gets a ready source of clients, BUT… the school loses some control over who signs up for their training.
The school I have a connection to in respect of ADR, have a system where these gov funded candidates have to prove their self on a simulator first, before getting anywhere near driving on the roads - such has been the very low standard of gov funded “clients” 