East Midlands Railway (EMR) has announced a recruitment drive to attract new apprentice train drivers to its team. 

The company recently received an official Ofsted rating of 'Good' for their apprenticeship scheme and is now keen to encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply for the roles - which will be based at its depots in Nottingham and Derby.

The apprenticeship scheme is open to people aged 21 and over. It involves a 12-18-month programme that blends theory and practical work in the classroom with practical skills development - such as cab rides and signal box visits.

EMR is keen to show it values diversity and is committed to ensuring equality across its organisation. The company is encouraging women, younger people and ethnic minority groups to apply for the roles.

Successful applicants will have access to world class facilities at EMR's training academy where classroom learning is underpinned by state-of-the-art Virtual Reality (VR) that replicates real life railway situations.

EMR also has a cab simulator so apprentices can learn about train driving in a variety of different circumstances and conditions within a safe environment.

Kate Holden, HR Director for EMR said: "At EMR, we currently employ just over 600 drivers and to fulfil our fleet rollout, we need drivers to operate the trains across the network.

"One of our major challenges is encouraging a more diverse driving workforce. We've been working to increase the number of females applying for our driver roles, with open evenings aimed specifically at women, as well as tackling the unconscious bias through blind screening.

"We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and ages and we'd urge anybody interested in a career in any of these driver roles to check out our website."

The closing date for applicants is Sunday 22 January.

For more information about recruitment at EMR please click here, and for more information about becoming a train driver please click here.