Rail & groundworks
Higher pay than general site work, and fewer people know the door exists.
This month: PTS card
Personal Track Safety certification — often funded for jobseekers through rail training providers. A few days of training.
Often fundedFirst job: trackside operative
£28–35k with night and weekend premiums. Basic DBS for most trackside work.
Basic check onlyYear 1: tickets stack up
Small tools, lookout, machine controller — each ticket is days long and raises your rate.
The ceiling: £40k+
Skilled rail operatives and supervisors. The industry is chronically short-staffed.
Not sure where your record stands? Since October 2023 most records become spent far sooner than people assume — and spent records are invisible to a Basic check, like the ones on this route.
Check yours — it stays on your phone →Real places to start
Links open the real provider. Good:Folk never sits in the middle.
Employers that actively hire on this route
Public programmes for hiring people with convictions — doors that actually open.
More like this
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