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Volvo trawls the world
Page 65
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Volvo Muck & Bus South, the UK's and the truck company's largest distributor, has taken probably the boldest step of any to stem the growing shortage of technician talent. In concert with stepping up its apprentice training programmes to ease the situation in the future, the distributor cast its net halfway around the world to the Philippines -to resolve its short-term needs.
Some may head to the Philippines to buy themselves a wife, but not Volvo. Last year, and after an exhaustive selection process, the distributor welcomed what has turned out to be an advance guard of eight Filipino technicians, all skilled and many better qualified than the home-grown product. That eight has now grown to 19, with more joining elsewhere. Volvo Truck distributor Hartshorne, for one, has dipped its recruitment net into the same pool and many from competitors are thought to be poised to follow suit.
Volvo Truck & Bus South has been mighty pleased with the result. Most of the Filipinos are in their early 30s. All are trained truck technicians, some having the equivalent of a degree in the subject. Most will have at some time or another worked for Volvo Trucks or on Volvo trucks probably in the Middle East or somewhere similarly remote from our shores.
On arrival it's straight into a two-week familiarisation course, receipt of a start-up tool kit, the cost of which is docked from the weekly pay packet, and off to work. The Filipinos enjoy the same terms and conditions of employment as their UK colleagues.
They also speak reasonable English as it's the second language of the Philippines. From the start they have got on well with their newfound British colleagues and proved their worth professionally On a personal note, they love our mobile phones but have yet to grasp the take-away food habit. And with fuel at 30p/litre, beer at 5p bottle and cigarettes at 5p for 20 back home, they say that living it up in the UK is a little too expensive! A The original group was followed by 11 more