Its good to be fair some very intense days loads of time on your hands at night, the first week is pretty much inductions into the company health and safety etc but it also gets team bonding going as you stay with you stream throughout your training normally a group of 7 or 8 and you recieve all your kit i mean everything!!!
Then after that it gets interesting with pole climbs and street works courses health and safety, pole climbing is brilliant i would happily spend my days up them at times there is a lot to take in but the way its put across you reatain so much

Im loving it

Cheers for the info too Crustalz
Where are you doing the remainder of your training after Yearnfield?

Does anyone know the policy on using the work vans, I know that we obviously can't use them for personal use but can you, for example, stop at tescos or the gym on the way home from your last job? I start in September so just interested to know!

Yes you can get away with it i guess?

i've seen a few OR people in my local sainsburys and a bakers down the street.

Im at yarnfield for the full 6 weeks then into the north west area

Van usage other than work purposes is a no no
So no sainsburys or gym on the way home after your last job vans are fitted with trackers and you can be disciplined for it, your not really allowed to go to sainsburys in your own car wearing your uniform your expected to go straight home and change

Stopping on the way home en route to pick up an evening paper, pint of milk, four pack of Stella etc. Will be okay.

Stopping on the way home to go to the gym, watch a movie at the cinema, pick up your weekly shopping at the superstore, having a pint at the pub will not.

Managers are inherently lazy and won't be looking at your tracker too hard but when they have cause to, it is very easy for them to pick up off route activity.

Occasional off route activity they won't worry about, repeatedly off route activity is an easy tick box for them and a problem for you.

They are looking at very small amounts of time. Two minutes here, three minutes there off route. They then add this time together and calculate you could have done another job per month in this time.

I would advise any errands are done short time on the way home and any errands during working hours, leaving the van where it should be and walking.

Edited by deleted (Thu 07-Jul-16 23:49:33)

Thats a great detailed insight to the initial training programme you've given there Crustalz, many thanks. Also to the other contributors regarding the use of company vehices. All this information is really helpful, especially when you know its coming from people currently experiencing or having experienced the ways of OR first hand.

Thanks guys.

I just finished my second to last week at Yarnfield and finally beginning (if only slightly) to feel a bit like an engineer. This week was the toughest yet with 4 days of dropwire training (up and down poles etc). Looking forward to buddying now though and being at home with my family. Any questions I will try and answer over the weekend

In reply to a post by ApuChunk:

I just finished my second to last week at Yarnfield and finally beginning (if only slightly) to feel a bit like an engineer. This week was the toughest yet with 4 days of dropwire training (up and down poles etc). Looking forward to buddying now though and being at home with my family. Any questions I will try and answer over the weekend

hey hope its going well! Are you competly new to this type of work?? Just wondering as ive not done anything like before so want to see how intense the training is! Cant wait to get started

Yea completely new! It does seem like a lot of info at once thrown at you but you'll be surprised how much of it sticks. They say you do 10% of learning on training then 40% buddying then the rest is learned on the job. I dont think they rush you into anything if youre not ready though (I hope) It's been a great time apart from being away from home but you do have a good laugh with the people you meet there.