Driving testers RSA 2021

Same here, passed the assessment.

23 on the Dublin North panel.

Not sure whether that puts me in contention for a job or not but it’s a good feeling.

Congrats to all. I got it too, in the top 10 for both counties I selected! I wonder what are the chances, I wonder how many they are taking per county?

I heard they are looking for 70 candidates in total for this competition for the entire country I believe

It's been every couple of years recently but I think that's been more for contract-only positions though. I guess it'll depend on staff turnover and how waiting lists go while the proposed splitting-up of the RSA (if it goes ahead) may also have some impact but very difficult to call.

Try this link:

https://rsa.powerappsportals.com/drivertest-estimation-personal/#test-centres

Keep us all updated on progress if you can lads..

People have already been offered contracts and some training courses are to begin early March.

Which region have you placed 2 on panel? as the training course is in tallaght with the majority of people being trained being placed in Dublin from the course

Garda vetting does not take up to six weeks anywhere these days. (This I know because I work for an ETB and put through garda vettings for people when needed, they are very fast these days, it's up to the individual to send back the info asap). I've been following these chats for the past few weeks and congrats to everyone on their patience because wow, was that a ridiculous wait for all involved. My hubby got 1 and 2 on each of his chosen counties, but no word yet on anything. He's been told by a friend of a definite vacancy in the county he's no.1 on, but he's yet to hear anything. I'll update if he does, if people would be interested to know. Hope it all goes well for everyone hoping to hear something.

There has been movement. There's a training course in tallaght start March 10th. And another one due to start in cork. And about 35 contract testers who were in the RSA during the recruitment process have signed permanent contracts.

Agree, that’s a big let down. The whole process was not only time consuming but expensive too.

Bit of a disaster alrite but sher what about it either way it was something to do anyway 🤣🤣

Good luck to anyone here anyway..

I think that @anonymous 617 has provided a lot of good, key information in relation to the whole process in general at this stage. I would also take it from the fact that he/she is posting anonymously that there's probably some degree of confidentiality required in the recruitment process at this point.

On the basis of his/her info, the Cork course will likely be starting this month. The RSA are almost certainly going to have given candidates at least a month's notice as that's what most people who are already in employment will need. On that basis, it would follow that if you haven't heard anything about the Dublin/Cork courses by now then you will likely not be part of the first cohort of recruits. That doesn't mean that there won't be another round of recruitment later on as there may be retirements/transfers/drop-outs from training/etc so don't completely lose hope but I don't think that I'd hold my breath at this point either.

As has been well outlined from the beginning, Dublin and Cork will be the focus of this panel. These are the quick-win/low-hanging-fruit areas where they can easily train many candidates in one, local training centre. These areas are also where the largest waiting lists are and so the the biggest reductions in overall numbers can be made here.

I'd imagine, where vacancies exist in other regional locations, that they'll do these as efficiently as they can afterwards, which might perhaps mean candidates from a few separate counties going to a central training point. That's just me guessing but it would seem to be the most effective way to do it.

The 35 contractors being taken on will have skewed the odds badly for external candidates but, as already said above, this is not at all uncommon for many public sector vacancies. In fact, in some public sector roles, it may already have been effectively decided to give the role to an internal candidate but they still need to go through the whole openly advertised process. That's going to be the disappointing part for most people and, indeed, I might not have considered throwing my own hat in the ring at the start if I'd known that my chances were going to be effectively cut in half. I understand why they would do this though as they can just redeploy these contractors almost straight away. Raw recruits will need 7 weeks of training and then some bedding in. Doesn't necessarily make it easier to swallow but ... 🤷🏻‍♂️

Alas I don't think there's a whole lot else to say at this point. Good luck in the role to those who got the call and hopefully a few others will get in during the lifetime of the panel.

Total number of testers to rise to 200 or an additional 200 being recruited?

Edit, 200 total it seems.

So there are 60 test centres around the country, they are looking to increase testers to 200. So there were only roughly 130 existing testers working from 60 centres, an average of just over two per centre?
That seems very low.