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Management training becomes a
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pressing priority RTITB report pinpoints a serious weakness
•
in transport education from our political correspondent
• The urgent need to step up training in the road transport industry, particularly at management level, was stressed in a report to Parliament, last Friday.
Increases in the operation of one-man buses have also created special training needs, said the report, by the Road Transport Industry Training Board, to Mrs. Castle, Minister of Employment and Productivity.
Some 225,000 employees, 27 per cent of those engaged in the industry, underwent grant-worthy training in the year ended July 31 1968, which represented 3.5 million days, or 1.6 per cent of working time.
"Despite these figures, quantitative and qualitative shortages are apparent at all levels and in all sectors and sizes of .establishments," says the Board chairman, Mr. Kenneth C. Turner.
"In the best situations the industry is providing replacements for its losses, but little
provision is being made for the expansion which is continuing in every sector other than passenger transport.
"In the worst situations, there remains a clear need to educate companies in the value of training and to indicate to them the training needed to maintain their operation at an effective level."
"It has become clearer during the year that management training is a pressing priority in all sectors of the industry. In particular, there is need for the single manager in the small establishment to understand the value of new techniques and procedures which he tends to ignore unless he makes a conscious effort to understand them."
In larger firms the Board is advocating systematic management development as a means of ensuring that the need to provide future managers is not neglected.
In the road haulage sector, the passing of the Transport Act, with its emphasis on the transport manager's licence, underlines the need for training.
The need for recruiting from the most advantageous sources is apparent and it is a "serious weakness" that grant was claimed for the training of only 12 new graduates in the industry during the year.
The heavy goods vehicle licence should do much to improve the standard of new drivers in the road haulage sector.
The increase in one-man-bus operation has created special training needs. More generally, the Board's training recommendations will set performance standards for experienced operatives in many parts of the industry which have hitherto barely recognized the need for training. It is hoped that the chronic labour turnover among these operatives will thus be reduced.
In garages the standards for apprentice
craftsmen vary enormously and the immediate need is to reach a situation where the best existing standard becomes the general standard in the industry.
Additionally, there is increasing recognition of the need to increase the number of technicians in the industry, to cater for the future load of diagnostic work and to give diagnostic training to craftsmen in the smaller garages who cannot afford to employ a fulltime technician.
"The last year was the first in which there was a reduction in the total numbers employed in the garage sector," says the report. "Bearing in mind the forecast increase in motor vehicle usage, the need for training to optimize the use of manpower is of paramount importance, whilst the advantage of formal training in off-the-job situations as a means of attracting more and better boys who want a career in this sector is clear."
The Board claims that the achievement of the last year had been progressively to apply elementary standards to the training which was being carried out. The industry had been given a great deal of advice about the content and length of programmes, and had had the opportunity at the first Motec (Multi-Occupational Training and Education Centre) to run prototype courses designed to establish realistic standards for different training activities. In particular, the management and commercial division had greatly stimulated the growth of management training programmes, particularly in the road haulage sector.
Programmes had been run in the Motec, in over 30 technical colleges, at Ashridge Management College, and in the Universities of Manchester, Leeds and Loughborough. Altogether some 2,000 managers had taken advantage of these newly created opportunities for instruction.
The Board plans to open a second Motec at Livingston, near Edinburgh, which will cater for 200 trainees and will become operational early in 1971. •
Under the Board's group training policy, 25 schemes had been registered to cater for the training needs of some 9,000 employees. The groups were divided broadly into those which served driver training needs, and those which catered mainly for apprentices.
As part of the Board's effort to meet some of the needs of the small companies in the remote areas, a number of mobile training units were now under construction and would be used to provide short courses oh site.
At last March there were 126 training officers in post at the regions and a further 10 were undergoing training. During the year the officers made 67,000 training visits and, with
a greater number of staff, the visits were now running at a rate of 80,000 a year.
The total called for under the Board's first levy on the industry was just over £11.4 million, of which only about £700,000 remained outstanding. In future the Board intends to begin a regular levy /grant cycle, with the levy being raised annually in mid-year and grants being payable in January and August.
The total paid for the first full grant period was now slightly over £10.7m. This was more than £1.7m in excess of the original estimate which was based on very rudimentary information about training which was available before the Board began work.
The total staff of the Board at last March was 642. Of these, 287 were at headquarters and 355 in the regions; 417 were principally engaged in training and 225 in administration. The task of completing and correcting the register of establishments had gone ahead throughout the year. The rate of change was remarkably high with some 15 per cent of firms undergoing some change of title, address, or the like, every year. The register is now maintained in a computer into which the changes are fed and which produces a revised up-to-date list as required.
(Report and Accounts of the Road Transport Industry Training Board for the period ended March 31,1969. HMSO 3s 6c1).