East Midlands Railway Arctic Shores Assessment

Trainee driver, frontline & customer-facing hiring (no graduate scheme)

East Midlands Railway's own live Trainee Depot Driver advert (Nottingham, ref 2026-76) lists as the first of five stages “Stage 1 - Submit application and complete online Arctic Shores Assessment”, so Arctic Shores is officially confirmed for EMR's high-volume driver and frontline hiring, though EMR does not publish which Arctic Shores tasks the assessment contains. The same advert adds that “once you have submitted your application you will need to complete a short set of online assessments and you will receive an email from our testing partner with details”. Scope matters here: the three current engineering and head-office adverts we read (Graduate Engineer 2026-GE, Fleet Engineer 2026-FE, Senior Commercial Insights Manager 2026-SCIM2) name no online assessment at all, so this page is about driver and customer-facing hiring, not managerial hiring. For trainee drivers the Arctic Shores stage is stage one only — the driver psychometrics at stages two and five are administered by the Occupational Psychology Centre (OPC), a different provider, and are not game-based. Arctic Shores is a recent addition: it does not appear in EMR's application-process page as archived in April 2024, in its February 2025 trainee-driver press release, or in its January 2026 adverts, but it does appear in the September 2026 driver advert. EMR publishes no task list, no length and no timing for its Arctic Shores stage, and no reachable candidate report describes them, so anyone naming specific EMR games is guessing.

The process

  1. Step 1 — Online application with a blind-screened CV

    You apply on EMR's own jobs site and upload a CV. EMR screens blind and instructs applicants to strip all personal information, including their name, from the CV. Applications must be in before 23:59 on the closing day; the Trainee Depot Driver advert (ref 2026-76) closed 13 September 2026.

  2. Step 2 — Online Arctic Shores assessment

    Quoted from the advert: “Stage 1 - Submit application and complete online Arctic Shores Assessment”. The invitation arrives by email from EMR's testing partner after you submit. EMR does not say which tasks are included, how long it takes, or whether any task is timed.

  3. Step 3 — Driver testing part 1 (OPC) — train driver roles only

    “Stage 2 - Driver testing part 1”. EMR's archived driver page and its February 2025 driver press release identify the national driver testing as administered by the Occupational Psychology Centre. The archived process page says practice materials are sent at least 7 days before the testing session. These are pen-and-paper-style psychometrics, not Arctic Shores tasks.

  4. Step 4 — Assessment day

    “Stage 3 - Assessment Day”. EMR's own archived guidance describes group and individual tasks assessing teamwork, communication, listening and responding to others' views, and says the tasks “may seem random” but are designed to assess team working. Smart, professional presentation is explicitly part of what is assessed, reflecting EMR's uniform standard.

  5. Step 5 — Competency-based interview (STAR)

    “Stage 4 - Competency based interview”. EMR's archived process page states the interview scores past behaviors against EMR's behaviors and values and explicitly instructs the STAR structure (Situation, Task, Action, Result), with specific examples from past employment or education. EMR says this is the final stage for most of its roles.

  6. Step 6 — Driver testing part 2 (OPC) — train driver roles only

    “Stage 5 - Driver testing part 2”, after which successful candidates complete driver medical screening.

  7. Step 7 — Medical, drugs & alcohol clearance

    EMR's careers FAQ states all roles are offered subject to medical and drugs & alcohol clearance, with a more stringent medical for safety-critical roles. Several frontline roles (Platform Assistant / Customer Service Officer, Technician, Shunter, Train Manager, Senior Conductor) also require a railway-standard color vision test.

  8. Step 8 — Talent pool, not an immediate start

    The driver advert states training courses commence on various dates throughout 2027 and 2028 and that successful candidates are placed into a talent pool and offered a role when opportunities arise. The stated pool duration varies by campaign and role — a January 2026 Travel Advisor advert said up to 12 months, the archived driver page said up to 2 years.

Timing

The Trainee Depot Driver campaign (Nottingham, ref 2026-76) closed 13 September 2026 with training courses commencing on dates across 2027 and 2028; EMR publishes no per-stage dates for it. New vacancies go up on EMR's site each Friday. EMR gives no deadline for completing the Arctic Shores assessment itself — assume it is short and start it as soon as the invitation email arrives.

Sources

Practice the full modern suite

There is no task list on this page because EMR publishes none. EMR names Arctic Shores but never names a single task, Arctic Shores does not publish client configurations, and no reachable candidate report describes which tasks EMR uses. Any site listing specific EMR Arctic Shores games is inventing them, or borrowing another employer's battery. What you can do is get familiar with the format: work through the Arctic Shores task hub so nothing about the interface, the practice round or the no-right-answer feel is new on the day.

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Common questions

Does East Midlands Railway really use Arctic Shores?

Yes, for driver hiring at least, and EMR says so itself. The live Trainee Depot Driver advert for Nottingham (ref 2026-76, closing 13 September 2026) lists five stages and the first reads “Stage 1 - Submit application and complete online Arctic Shores Assessment”. The advert also tells you the invitation comes by email from EMR's testing partner after you submit. That is an official source, not a rumor.

Which Arctic Shores games does EMR use?

Nobody outside EMR knows. EMR's advert names the vendor and stops there — no task list, no number of tasks, no length, no statement about timing. Arctic Shores does not publish per-client configurations, and no candidate report we could reach describes EMR's battery. Be suspicious of any page that gives you a confident list: the most common way that list gets built is by copying a different employer's battery. Practicing the general Arctic Shores task formats is legitimate preparation; treating a made-up list as EMR's is not.

Is the Arctic Shores test the same as the train driver psychometric tests?

No, and it is worth keeping them apart. Arctic Shores sits at stage one, before anything else. The driver testing at stages two and five is administered by the Occupational Psychology Centre (OPC), a separate provider, and it is conventional speeded psychometric testing rather than a game-based assessment. EMR's archived process page says practice materials for the OPC session are sent to you at least 7 days beforehand, so prepare for that stage with the pack EMR sends you.

Do engineering, graduate or head-office applicants sit the Arctic Shores assessment?

The current adverts say no online assessment at all. We read three live EMR adverts — Graduate Engineer (2026-GE, Derby Etches Park, closing 27 September 2026), Fleet Engineer (2026-FE) and Senior Commercial Insights Manager (2026-SCIM2, interviews provisionally week commencing 5 October 2026) — and none of them names an online assessment or Arctic Shores. Absence from an advert is not proof the stage never runs, but on the published evidence Arctic Shores is confirmed for driver hiring and associated with customer-facing roles, not for engineering or managerial hiring. Note too that the engineering and managerial adverts carry a warning about AI-generated application content, which matters because you submit written answers.

Does East Midlands Railway run a graduate scheme?

No. EMR's own careers FAQ answers the question directly: “East Midlands Railway do not run a Graduate Scheme. We do, however, welcome applications from recent graduates to any of the roles advertised on our website.” The single “Graduate Engineer” vacancy is an ordinary advertised job, not a cohort program — it requires an Engineering Council accredited degree and offers rotation across Fleet departments with a chartered mentor, but it is applied for like any other vacancy.

When does EMR advertise, and how long does the process take?

EMR's careers FAQ says all vacancies are published on its website each Friday, that unsuccessful applications are not kept on file, and that you may reapply for the same role 6 months later. The archived driver page says trainee driver roles are advertised once a year, “usually between October and January” — though the 2026 campaign closed in September, so treat that window as historical rather than a prediction. For pacing only: the retired 2025 Nottingham and Derby campaign ran driver testing part 1 on 1-11 April, assessment days in the week of 12-16 May, competency interviews 2-13 June and driver testing part 2 from 24 June to 4 July. The 2026 advert publishes no per-stage dates.

Independent Arctic Shores-style practice. GameAssessmentPrep is not affiliated with or endorsed by Arctic Shores. Task selection, timing and scoring vary by employer; your invitation is authoritative. Process details reflect research as of August 2026 and employers change their assessments.

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